To Save A Dragon
by mdelpin
Summary: Sequel to To Kill A Dragon - Natsu tries to get more information about his connection to Zeref and discovers more questions instead. He sets off on his training journey determined to find the Black Wizard not realizing that in his absence events will be set in motion that will affect all of them.
1. Some Memories Are Meant To Stay Hidden

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

It is highly recommended that you read To Kill A Dragon before reading this story. If you would like to refresh your memory I am in the middle of creating a wiki for this series. Chapter Summaries from To Kill A Dragon are already available. I will post a link in my profile since FFNET will not allow links in here :(.

I hope to add character pages and more as we go along, the wiki is also a work in progress. It is meant to make it easier for readers to be able to look at spells or concepts included in the story and to help keep me honest by forcing me to define laws within the world that I have to adhere to. If you would like to help me set it up comment or PM and I would love the extra help.

I am waiting for the final artwork for the cover but this is the original sketch, once again by celestialrayna on devianart. It is the portrait Gray comissioned from Reedus.

Chapter 1: Some Memories Are Meant To Stay Hidden

Although Natsu certainly wanted to talk to Sting there was one other reason that he was going to Sabertooth that he had not told Gray about. He wanted to talk to Rufus Lore and after the events of the Grand Magic Games he knew that would be a touchy subject for the ice mage. Even though they had reached an uneasy truce while fighting the dragonlings they still disliked each other. Rufus' magic had something to do with memories and Natsu was hoping that he could look into his mind and see if he could find Zeref in there. He needed to know what their connection was before he was forced to face him in battle.

He arrived at Sabertooth quickly and was greeted by Rogue Cheney, the Shadow Dragon Slayer.

"Natsu?", Rogue raised an eyebrow, "What are you doing here?"

"I thought it was time I talked to Sting about Tartaros.", Natsu replied evenly, "Is he around?"

"Yeah, he's in his office for once. I'll take you.", Rogue led the way through the guild towards the Master's office, "I heard about Fairy Tail being disbanded by Makarov. That's a shame."

"Well, it's not really disbanded. Erza and Laxus are doing the Master thing until Gramps comes to his senses. The guild hall is almost completely rebuilt."

"Oh, I hadn't heard. Are you still-", Rogue asked awkwardly gesturing towards Natsu.

"Pregnant? Yes."

"How's Gray?", Rogue asked politely.

"He's fine. He went to Lamia to see his father.", Natsu looked at Rogue after they had dispensed with the pleasantries, "Can I ask you something?"

Rogue nodded.

"Erza mentioned that when you were giving Tiamat your magic she changed into Sting briefly. Why did she do that?"

Rogue immediately looked at the floor trying to hide his face from his fellow dragon slayer. "I don't really know why she did that. I didn't ask her to, if that's what you mean."

There was only one reason he could think of for Tiamat to have done that for Rogue, she knew of his attraction to the White Dragon Slayer. Sting had only gotten distracted because he thought Rogue was in danger. He wondered how long Sting had felt that way towards Rogue. Now that he was pretty sure that Rogue felt the same way, he would try to give his friends a little shove in the right direction.

Rogue knocked on Sting's office door and opened it when he heard Sting invite them in. Natsu saw Sting's face light up when Rogue entered the room and then become nervous when he saw Natsu walk in behind him. They had not seen each other since Tartaros. Once Natsu entered the room, Rogue left them alone.

Natsu sat on one of the chairs without being asked and to Sting's surprise immediately began asking about Rufus.

"Rufus? Why do you want to know about him?", Sting asked acting a little more at ease for the moment.

"I know he can make things from memory, but can he see into other people's memories as well?", Natsu asked with interest.

"I think so?", Sting said his face pensive, "I've never seen him doing it but I feel like I've heard him talk about doing something like it."

"Do you think he would be willing to do that for me?"

"What's this about, Natsu?", Sting asked, "I would think you'd be more interested in forgetting things."

"Don't worry about it, do you think he would do it?"

Sting sat there and thought about it.

"That depends, would it piss off Gray?", Sting asked with a grin, "Does he even know you're here?"

"He does, but he thinks I'm just here to talk to you.", Natsu said, "It would probably piss him off."

"I guarantee Rufus'll do it then. Stay here. I'll go find him." Sting left his office returning a few minutes later with the memory make wizard who looked at Natsu with interest.

"What is it that you are trying to remember?', Rufus asked.

"There is this person who acts like they know me but I don't remember them at all. I need to know if you can find him in my memories."

"Who is this person you are looking to find?", Rufus asked.

"Zeref.", Natsu said quietly.

"Zeref, are you mad?", Sting stared at Natsu, "He's a myth. He hasn't been seen in hundreds of years."

"That's not true, I've seen him twice now. At Tenrou Island and again at Tartaros."

Rufus looked at the Fire Dragon Slayer intently trying to determine whether he was being truthful.

Apparently satisfied by what he saw he asked, "Alright, what does he look like?"

Natsu grabbed his bag and removed a folded piece of paper from its contents. He opened it and showed it to the memory make mage.

"I had our picto mage draw this up for you." Natsu tried to hand the picture to Rufus.

"No need, I've already committed it to memory." He motioned for Natsu to stand by him. He put his hands on either side of Natsu's head. "This might feel strange but don't fight it, try to relax."

Rufus entered Natsu's mind looking for any signs of the man in the drawing but he could find nothing outside of the two instances the fire mage had already told him about. He continued to search going as far back as he could and found him one more time. He tried to see past that but he hit a wall. He tried pushing against it but it would not budge. He saw Natsu squirm with discomfort and he backed off. He had never seen anything like this before.

"What did you see?", Natsu asked eagerly.

"Well you're certainly as destructive as they say.", Rufus said giving himself time to consider what he had seen.

"And?"

Rufus looked at him "I saw him only one more time. When you were a child Zeref went to visit your dragon, and they argued about something although I didn't catch what. There is one other thing. Your memories have been tampered with. I can't see anything from before you lived with the dragon. The memories themselves are there but I can't access them, and I think neither can you."

"How do you even do that?"

"I have no recollection of coming across anything like this before.", Rufus shrugged, "My guess is there's something there that someone doesn't want you to know. I'm sorry, there's nothing else I can do."

Rufus exited the room leaving Sting and a frustrated Natsu in the office. Great, now he had more questions than when he got here. He was right though, Zeref had known Igneel. What had they been arguing about, had it somehow been about him?

"What is going on, Natsu?", Sting looked at his friend with concern.

"I don't know, I don't know what any of this means.", Natsu lamented, "Sting, do you remember anything before Weisslogia?"

"Not much but I was really young. I mostly remember feelings.", Sting answered. He tried to think as far back as he could remember. " I remember feeling scared and cold. I remember feeling hungry. I remember I wasn't alone, Rogue was with me. Not much else."

"You guys have always been together, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Have you ever wondered whether there's more there?", Natsu asked with as innocent a tone as he could muster.

"Just because you're mated doesn't mean we all have to be, Natsu. Why don't you go bug Gajeel about Levy."

"Because I'm here bugging you. Or would you rather talk about Tartaros?"

"Honestly? Yeah, I'd rather talk about that."

Natsu's demeanor changed instantly. He snarled, "Fine, mind telling me what the hell was so important that you got my son mauled and almost killed by Acnologia?"

Sting paled remembering Kai's horrible screams as Acnologia's fangs pierced through his body. He didn't like to think about what he had put Gray and Natsu through on top of everything else they had already been dealing with.

"Natsu, I'm so sorry. You have to believe I didn't mean for that to happen. I- I didn't know anything about the plan and I thought Rogue was going after Tiamat by himself and I- I panicked. I had no idea Kai was going to try to save me. It should have been me that got mauled not him."

"Damn straight.", Natsu growled, "Getting distracted in the middle of a fight is dangerous for everybody, Sting."

"I'm really sorry, Natsu. When I think about what could have happened I-", Sting paused trying to think of words that were strong enough for how he felt, "I would have never been able to forgive myself if he had died protecting me. I own him a great debt, I hope someday I will be able to repay it."

Natsu stared at Sting for a moment and let go of his anger. It had been an accident in the middle of an insane battle. All he needed to know was the Sting felt badly about it and he clearly did. They could move on now.

"Come here.", Natsu demanded.

Sting looked at him warily but moved towards him nonetheless. Natsu embraced his friend who had worked so hard to protect him from Tiamat. He was getting a little better about physical contact as more time passed.

"I forgive you, Sting.", Natsu said quietly, "Thank you for everything you did, you were there for me when I needed you."

"It's alright, man", Sting said somewhat embarrassed by the affection, "We're brothers aren't we?"

Natsu nodded. "Always."

Natsu let go and with an impish smile said, "As your brother I'd like to point out that if you feel so strongly about Rogue you should make a move."

Rogue walked into the room surprised to see Sting throwing objects from his desk at a snickering Natsu. To his confusion Sting blushed when he saw Rogue while Natsu laughed even harder.

"I take it everything is fine now?", Rogue asked ignoring their asinine antics as usual.

"Yeah, we're fine.", Natsu said once he had brought himself back under control. He ruffled Sting's hair playfully.

"We never talked about the dragons.", Rogue said evenly, trying to gauge Natsu's reaction. He and Sting had of course had many opportunities to discuss the events from Tartaros but they had not seen any of the Fairy Tail dragon slayers since that day.

"No, we didn't.", Natsu replied, "I still have a hard time believing they were inside us all along."

"There's something that confuses me still. I thought you had said that you and Sting had killed your dragons."

"We thought we had, the memories were so clear.", Rogue answered.

"Weisslogia and Skiadrum amitted they tampered with our memories.", Sting said, "I can only imagine that they were trying to protect us from the heartache that you guys experienced."

"Skiadrum mentioned that they went against Igneel's wishes.", Rogue said quietly.

"Igneel didn't want them to alter your memories?", Natsu asked, "Maybe he had already altered mine and it went badly?"

"Your memories have been altered?", Rogue asked with concern.

"According to Rufus they have.", Natsu explained, "My memories from before Igneel are not accessible."

"Why was Rufus checking your memory in the first place?"

Natsu explained his reasons for coming to Sabertooth and Rogue looked at him horrified.

"Zeref?'

Natsu shrugged. "I don't know what any of it means either, but I'm going to find out."

"It might not have been Igneel who altered your memories, you know.", Rogue said.

"I think it's pretty obvious that it was. The dragons had the ability to do so and he was my dragon. I just wish I knew why.", Natsu said, frustration evident in his voice.

The other two dragon slayers looked at him with concern and Natsu smiled at them.

"I need to get going.", Natsu said, "I promised the Ice Princess I'd meet him and his father for dinner."

They said their goodbyes and Natsu headed back to Margaret Town. He had a lot to think about.

A/N I'm very excited to be back in this world. I hope you are all ready to embark on a new adventure! Let me know what you think, it helps my motivation levels immensely! I'll also happily accept constructive criticism, it helps me grow as a writer.


	2. Father and Son

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

A/N For some reason I feel the need to reassure people that no one dies in this chapter.

Chapter 2: Father And Son

Gray Fullbuster straightened himself up after Natsu had unceremoniously shoved him through the doors of the Lamia Scale Guild. He looked back but the doors had closed behind him and his mate had already disappeared from view. He was very nervous. It had been over two months since Tartaros and he had not seen or talked to his father once in that time.

All the mages of Lamia Scale that sat near the entrance were eyeing him with interest, their conversations interrupted by his abrupt entrance. He ignored their curious stares as he looked around trying to find Lyon. Instead he saw his father, Silver Fullbuster, talking animatedly to the Wizard Saint Jura Neekis at a table near the back.

Silver looked good, he looked almost happy as he laughed at something the Wizard Saint said. Gray found himself smiling at the sight. The last time Gray had seen him he had been a charred mess, but the wounds he had received from Kai's attack had managed to heal with minimal scarring making Gray think that Lyon had somehow convinced his father to let Sherria heal him. He was glad for that, he had heard from Wendy that Silver had refused her help on the cube.

He saw Lyon approach them from the direction of the bar. His arms laden with drinks for the three of them. Lyon and Silver looked very comfortable with each other and Gray felt the beginnings of jealousy course through him even as he tried to ignore it. He was the one who had left Silver severely injured on Tartaros without even a word, more concerned with his mate and child than with his own father. Lyon had not had anyone to look up to since Ur died and he was not about to begrudge him that, especially when he had willingly taken on the role of caretaker in his place.

He felt stupid just standing there but he couldn't seem to make his feet move towards their table. He felt a sudden warmth fill him through the soul bond and smiled, Natsu must be watching him from the window. He was about to turn and look when he heard someone call out his name.

"Gray?', a short blue-haired mage with bushy eyebrows asked as he walked towards the ice mage, "I didn't recognize you with your clothes on."

"Uhm, hi?", Gray answered, embarrassed that he could not remember the name of one of the members of his brother's team.

"Yuka Suzuki.", the mage supplied helpfully, "Did Lyon know you were coming?"

"No, it was a spur of the moment decision.", Gray said as he self-consciously began to tug at his shirt.

"Oh, I'll let him know you're here."

"There's no need, Yuka.", Lyon appeared behind his teammate, "Hello, Gray. I take it you're ready to talk to your father?"

Gray nodded nervously.

"Well go see him then, he's been waiting for a long time." Lyon gently nudged Gray towards the table where Silver was still talking to Jura.

"I'll be going on a small job with my team, I'll be back in time for dinner."

Gray nodded even as he heard Yuka ask Lyon what job he was talking about. He began to make his way to the back table. Silver finally saw him and quickly stood up. He looked nervous as he ran his fingers through his hair in a gesture that Gray was very familiar with. It made him feel a little better to know that his father was nervous too.

He gave Silver an awkward smile and sat down across from him. Jura had tactfully left the table when he noticed Gray was there. Silver sat back down and stared at Gray almost as if he was assuring himself that his son was real.

"Hi Dad.", Gray began, trying to sound more confident than he felt, "I thought it was about time we talked."

Silver waited in uncomfortable silence. He wanted Gray to say whatever he needed to without interrupting but the boy had not uttered another word for awhile now.

"I wanted to say I was sorry for leaving you there.", Gray finally spoke, ashamed of his behavior, "and for some of the things I said, you know, during. That was wrong of me."

Silver looked at his son in disbelief. "Son, I was trying to kill your mate and I hurt you, I think you were somewhat justified."

He pulled at his hair. This was not right. Gray shouldn't be apologizing to him. Lyon was right, his son was an idiot who could not hold a grudge. "Gray, there is nothing for you to apologize to me about. You were a victim in all this. I was the one who went about everything all wrong. You have every right to hate me."

"I don't hate you.", Gray said honestly, "I don't really understand what I feel but it's not hate."

Gray found that now that he had started talking he could not stop. The words kept coming out of his mouth before he could stop them. "I want to understand what happened to you. How you ended up mixed up with Tartaros, why I was alone all those years. Why didn't you look for me?"

"I didn't know, Gray.", Silver said and a twinge of despair could be heard in his voice, "Everything I did , I did because I thought I had nothing left. I thought both you and your mother had been killed by Deliora. I made both of you a grave and I visited it whenever I could. I kept you in my thoughts and in my heart and your deaths fueled my deep need for revenge. I'll be honest though, I don't know what I could have done if I had known you were alive. I would never have wanted Keyes to know about you."

He sighed, "You have to know, I never stopped loving you. Either of you. The biggest torture of this unwanted existence for me was being away from you. I craved death, but that's the big joke isn't it? I can't die, not unless Keyes dies or he releases me. My only happy thought was that somewhere you and Mika were waiting for me and we would be reunited once more. I missed you both so much!"

Gray had tears in his eyes as his father's words brought back Deliora's attack on his town of Isvan, the only home he had ever known. He remembered seeing his father trying to protect them from a monster that Gray would have never been able to come up with even in his worst nightmares. The monster's hollow, dead eyes freezing him in place, making hm too afraid to move lest he manage to attract its attention. Remembered his mother dragging him, trying to get him to react so that they could move away from the demon's swath of destruction, she still somehow managed to be warm and encouraging even through her own terror. Remembered her falling prey to one of the demon's attacks but bravely screaming at him to run and hide even as her body was torn to pieces by the energy beam. Remembered the usually beautiful white snow splattered red with blood that belonged inside his friends, and his family and all the people who lived in his town and how he'd run slipping on things he never wished to give a name to. Remembered later when everything was quiet walking around looking for any survivors but finding none. He had found Silver then and had laid next to his cold body for hours until he'd had no choice but to find shelter. That's where Ur and Lyon had found him. He began to sob as he now saw the same man sitting in front of him alive.

Silver stood up from his side of the table and made his way to his son. He grabbed him up from his seat and pulled him into a hug letting him let out all the tears Gray had not allowed himself to shed in the name of being strong. "Shh, It's ok, Gray. It's over, the demons are all gone and they are never coming back. Deliora is never coming back, Ur made sure of that. I am the only Demon Gate left and as soon as I take out E.N.D. Zeref will have no demons left to call upon."

As a child, Gray had been a very sweet and thoughtful boy. He'd been friendly and open. Silver held many memories of their time together as a family. All the games they had played and the words they had said to each other out of love. They had been happy. Silver could not even begin to imagine what surviving Deliora's attack must have done to his son, especially when the second family he had allowed himself to get close to had been ripped away in much the same way soon after. He marveled at the man that stood in front of him and wondered how on Earthland he had managed to stay so whole. He thanked the Gods that Gray had found his way to Fairy Tail. He would forever be grateful to that old man for healing his boy. He hugged Gray tighter, part of him still having trouble believing that his son was alive. He allowed the love that was in his heart for his son to overtake the hate and vengeance he had held onto for so long and for the first time in his undead life he began to have hope for the future.

Gray pushed himself away from his father and wiped his tears away with the sleeve of his jacket. "I'm sorry, I don't usually let myself think about what happened.'

"There's nothing to be sorry about. I understand, I lost everything that day too. I owe you some answers. This is a long story, you might want to grab something to drink."

They went to the bar to order some drinks and Silver turned towards Gray taking the opportunity to ask a question he'd had since the moment he'd seen his son.

"Natsu didn't come with you?"

"He did. He went to Sabertooth to talk to Sting about everything that happened at Tartaros with Kai. He'll join us later."

"Does he blame me?", Silver asked seriously. This was something that weighed heavily on his mind. He could not forget the pain that he put them through. It still pained him that he had not been strong enough to resist Tiamat's control.

"I don't really know how he feels but he encouraged me to come see you. He's had a hard time of it."

"Alright. I'd like to get the chance to apologize to him for hurting him."

"You should have plenty of chances. We'd like you to come back to Magnolia with us."

"To live with you?"

"Well, no. We thought you might want to live in one of our places. Maybe you could even join Fairy Tail. We are planning on building a house for when Kai comes."

'I see. I'd like to talk to Natsu before I decide. I don't want to be a problem for the two of you."

"Natsu's not like that.", Gray assured him, "He understands it wasn't your fault."

"Still, I'd feel more comfortable once I knew his feelings.", Silver said as he paid for the drinks and they headed back to their table. They sat down and Silver began his story.

"As far as I know I was chosen at random. My body just happened to be in better shape than some of the others around me. I don't remember much about the experiments, let's just say they were unpleasant. Keyes' curse was Necromancy and he was using it to try to resurrect corpses that would be indistinguishable from human beings. He would then control them to do his bidding, unfortunately for him they did not seem to last for very long, that is until I came along. My desire for vengeance fueled my body far longer than any of his other experiments and I became his proudest achievement."

"When I came to I didn't know what had happened to me. At first I thought I had managed to survive and I ran back to Isvan to search for the two of you hoping you had survived as well. Those hopes were shattered when I was told that there had been no survivors. I went to the house anyway hoping they were wrong. I placed a marker for you so that I would have a place to visit and I promised you both that I would avenge you. I didn't know how but I was going to make the demons pay for what they did to us. Especially Deliora.

I roamed for months trying to find out as much as I could about demons so that I could set about destroying them. I even went to the Magic Library but there was not much information available about them.

One day I came upon this old man who was fighting a creature unlike any I had ever seen before. He was able to defeat it easily using some sort of magic, much like what you saw me use against Tiamat. I talked to him wanting to know how I could learn something like that. It turns out he belonged to a clan of something called devil slayers. He was the last remaining one, all the others had been taken out by Delliora as well.

The old man did not want the lost magic of his clan to die with him and when I told him I was determined to destroy Deliora he agreed to teach me, even gave me all the writings he had. I practiced in secret for years and I began to kill demons I encountered while performing my missions for Keyes, Soon after word got around that Deliora had been encased in a wall of ice by the ice mage Ur and I visited Brago to see it with my own eyes. With my new magic I could feel the demon still alive in there and I could feel Ur's will working away at him. I honed my skills and made a point of visiting often, making sure that he was getting weaker and ready to take action if he wasn't.

Even though I was still under Keyes' control, I began to get stronger. Soon word of my abilities got back to Mard Geer, the leader of the Guild,and for some reason it amused him. He decided to make me one of his Demon Gates. Personally, I think he enjoyed having a devil slayer as a puppet. It was his way of keeping the other demons in check. I continued to do Tartaros' bidding but I had my own mission. I wanted to take out all demons but none more than the ones I was forced to work with. I wanted to take Tartaros out from the inside and I wanted to destroy its Master, the demon known as E.N.D.

On a whim I decided to go to the Grand Magic Games and that's when everything changed. I saw you there and I couldn't believe that you had been alive all this time. I spent the entire day watching you, on the screen and in your team box. That's how I knew who Natsu was, I saw the way you acted around him and I knew he was important to you, that's why I tried to protect him from Franmalth. I just wish I had known about what had happened to him before I froze him and had him placed in that cell. I really have a lot I have to make up for with him.", Silver sighed.

He knew he had screwed up in just about everything to do with the Fire Dragon Slayer and despite Lyon's assurances that Natsu possessed a very forgiving nature Silver wasn't sure anybody should be that forgiving.

"You know the rest, Tartaros' plan to destroy magic and revive E.N.D., it had been Keyes plan to have me fight you to the death, or have you perform Iced Shell to kill me. Mutually assured destruction. But Tiamat and Fairy Tail showed up and messed up all their plans and now here we are."

Silver noticed Gray was not paying attention to him any longer. He had a faraway look like he was trying to figure out something.

"Am I boring you?", Silver asked with some amusement.

Gray looked at him puzzled. "What?"

"You look like your mind is elsewhere."

"Oh. Natsu seems to be upset about something.', Gray explained.

"I didn't know you had telepathy."

'I don't, through the soul bond we can feel whenever the other is having a strong emotion. Sometimes we can send emotions to each other, we're still learning how it works. Right now I can tell that he's unhappy about something but I have no idea what."

"So since you brought it up, can I ask you a few questions?"

"Uhm, sure?", Gray said sounding anything but.

"What is this soulbond you keep referring to?", Silver asked with some concern.

"It's an ancient ritual that we performed that fused our souls together into one. We were able to claim each other and cancel out Tiamat's forced claim on Natsu. Now we're mates.

"Ok, what about the pregnancy, is it a one time thing or is it some sort of dragon slayer ability?", Silver still wasn't sure how he felt about the idea of a man being pregnant but he was curious.

"It's a one time thing, it's a magical pregnancy caused by Tiamat. We won't ever be able to have any more children unless we adopt them.", Gray said a little sadly. He liked the idea of him and Natsu creating a larger family.

"Are you truly in love with him?", this was the most important question in Silver's mind. He and Mika had been very much in love and he did not want anything less for his son. He worried that Gray might feel badly for Natsu and was committing himself to the Fire Dragon Slayer out of a misguided sense of responsibility.

"I've never loved anyone else.", Gray told his father honestly.

Silver smiled at Gray. "I'm glad to hear it."

"I think that's probably enough talk for one day.", Silver said, "When did you say Natsu was getting here? I'm starving."

"He should be here any minute. ", Gray said, "He has to make his way back from Sabertooth."

"I'd love to hear about your life at dinner.", Silver grinned, "I bet Natsu and Lyon have some great stories to tell."

They continued to talk about general topics as they waited for the others. Gray was happy that he had decided to come and he felt a little better. He was sure now that he did want his dad to be a part of their life. Their conversation had given him a lot to think about, he was especially curious about the devil slayer magic his father had learned and wondered if his father would teach it to him.

Lyon finally entered the guild with Yuka and Toby and they immediately joined Gray and Silver. Gray tried to follow their conversation but gave up, content to watch them as he let his mind drift to his boyfriend. He was curious to hear about how Natsu's conversation with Sting had gone and what could've happened to make him so upset. He soon saw a familiar head of pink hair heading towards them and he quickly got up to greet him before he got too close to the table.

Natsu saw Gray walk towards him and plastered a smile on his face. He didn't really want to talk about what he had learned yet. He wanted to be able to enjoy a nice dinner with his mate and Silver and Lyon.

"Don't you dare try to hide it.", Gray chided him , "What happened?"

Natsu saw the worry in the blue eyes he loved and berated himself. He really needed to work on learning how to control what flowed through the soulbond.

"I promise you, nothing is wrong.", Natsu said, "I intend on telling you all about it later but right now I'm tired and hungry and I really just want to enjoy being with you and meeting your dad when he's not trying to kill me."

Natsu realized what he'd said and quickly tried to fix it, "Crap! I didn't mean it like that, I was trying to be funny.", Natsu sighed, "Can we just start over?"

Gray nodded and looked at him expectantly.

Natsu embraced Gray and whispered in his ear, "I missed you."

Gray wrapped his arms around Natsu and held him tightly against him. He felt Natsu's muscles relax in his arms. As long as he knew that Natsu wasn't trying to hide something from him, he could wait.

"I missed you too, are you feeling ok?", Gray asked, "Did you take the tr-"

His words were cut off by Natsu's lips as the fire mage kissed him. He kissed him back happily. Once they pulled apart Natsu asked him, "How did it go?"

"Better than I thought it would."

"Good!", Natsu beamed at him, "I'm glad you finally decided to come. Now can we go eat, I'm starving!"

"You're always starving, Pinkie.", Gray snorted

"Hey, I'm eating for two!", Natsu complained.

"You mean two dozen."

"I'd like to see you be pregnant, Ice Block."

"I'm sure I would be better at it than you, Ashes for brains"

"Can you guys be done with the flirting? Some of us would like to go eat", Lyon interrupted. He tried to sound annoyed but he was happy to see the two acting more normal. They'd had a rough go of it lately.

"You want a piece of me, Ice Penguin?", Natsu growled.

Silver chuckled to see the spirit that all of these kids had. "Come on guys let's go, my treat."

Lyon saw Natsu's overjoyed expression at Silver's comment and replied, "Silver, you are going to regret that."

They all walked out of Lamia Scale and towards the restaurant together.

o-o

A/N This will not be the last time Gray and Silver talk about stuff but it's a good beginning for them. I'm still not sure what the update schedule will be for this story. I usually try to update once a week but I don't like to make promises because life happens and I am publishing another story at the same time. Please let me know what you think, I love to hear from you.

Thank you to all my writer friends who helped me through my writing crisis this week, your support means the world to me. I feel a lot better now and I can move forward with more confidence. I have also become aware of unpleasantness being hurled at writers who are attempting to participate in the first ever gratsulu event. On that note I thought it would be nice to have a support space for FT Writers to share with other FT writers, no matter what part of the fandom they are a part of.

For this purpose I have created a forum called Fairy Tail Writers Lounge that I hope can come to be that for us. It is very bare bones at the moment as I am still trying to figure out how forums work. There is a link to it in my profile since FFNet is a pain about links This is the blurb I wrote for it:

Fairy Tail is all about family so I thought it would be nice to have a place for Fairy Tail Writers, no matter what part of the fandom they identify with, to come together and converse with each other about writing, share ideas or resources about handling writer's block, unpleasant reviewers, writing challenges or whatever else they want. The idea is to foster a sense of community and support between the writers that make up this fandom.

If you are an FT writer and like the idea of this space come in and help me turn it into a safe place for all of us, and let other FT writers know about it. Thanks!

Until next time!


	3. Free At Last

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

WARNING: This chapter describes consensual sex between two males.

Chapter 3: Free At Last

Natsu found himself laughing along with the others at Lyon's stories of training with Ur. Gray almost never talked about those times. Since Galuna Island Natsu had learned not to bring up Gray's master's name. He would always get a sad faraway look in his eyes. It was nice to see him laughing about those times and even telling some of his own stories.

"Wait, did Gray said he got his stripping habit from Ur?", Silver laughed, "That's not true. He was always like that. The second he came in the door from school all his clothes came off and he would run around the house in his underwear, but he hated the cold. Mika used to chase him around the house with clothes but he refused to wear them. It's kind of ironic that he became an ice mage."

"Dad!", Gray grumbled.

Natsu grinned at that little piece of information as Gray became embarrassed at his father's revelation.

"You better not teach Kai your stripping habit!", Natsu growled at Gray.

"I'm making no promises.", Gray stuck his tongue out at his mate.

"It sounded like your training was very intense.", Silver noted amid laughs.

"Yes, she was a hard taskmaster. We ran across the mountains in our underwear to make our bodies used to the cold and she would make us take ice baths too.", Gray shuddered as he remembered, "I guess it worked though because I certainly don't ever feel cold anymore."

"Did you have magic before you were revived?", Lyon asked Silver.

"Not that I was aware of. I imagine one of us must have had it though for Gray to have it."

"What was training for Devil Slayer magic like?", Gray asked with interest. He had seen how powerful the magic was and he was definitely interested in learning it.

"Well, it's not easy that's for sure. The first step is rather extreme. ", Silver said but did not explain further.

Natsu watched Silver and Gray interact and he felt conflicted. He was happy to see them getting along but at the same time it made him yearn for Igneel even more. Thinking about Igneel made him think about his memories being altered which in turn made him angry. Gray looked at him questioningly feeling the rise in temperature and feeling a weird mix of emotions flood him. Natsu squeezed his hand under the table letting him know everything was fine. He was going to have to get used to this. Silver was going to be a part of their lives and their family and he was honestly glad for it. He just wished it didn't hurt so much to see them together. He told himself it would get better with time.

Growing up in Fairy Tail Natsu'd had Gildarts and Macao take an interest in him while Gray shut himself off and shunned all of the older mages advances to take on a mentoring role. He preferred to go off on his own or just train with Natsu. He was more than due for something like this.

He watched the way Gray's eyes were alight with a fire he had never seen before and how his face was so animated and open. His entire body was devoid of the tension that he always carried with him. He was breathtaking, there was no other word for it. He couldn't remember ever seeing his ice mage like that before and it made his heart surge with happiness and love to see it. Just when he thought he could not find his mate any more attractive he was proven wrong. He wanted to see him like this forever. He decided then he didn't want to wait until he returned from his training journey to claim Gray. He wanted to do it tonight while Gray looked like this and before something could come around to attempt to destroy their happiness. His body became flushed at the thought of making love to his mate, and a slight panic tried to overtake him, a vestige of his time with Tiamat but he quickly shoved it away. This moment was meant for only him and Gray. He would not let anything befoul it.

Gray turned to look at Natsu once again, he raised his eyebrow at his mate while giving him an amused smile. Throughout the dinner he had been sending a flurry of emotions at him. He had gotten sadness, anger, love, happiness and that last one had definitely been desire. What on Earthland was going on in Natsu's head?

Gray smiled at the thought that Natsu's soulbond was as loud as the fire mage himself. It made it feel like Natsu was always with him. He saw the way Natsu was looking at him and he was suddenly overwhelmed by the love he felt for his idiot. He reached out and cupped Natsu's jaw with his hand. He leaned in and kissed him wanting the fire mage to feel what he felt. What began as a chaste kiss soon turned anything but. They explored each other's mouths, using their tongues to try to devour the other. As they separated they were both flushed and left wanting more, both surprised by the desperate need they felt to continue. They were in their own world staring at each other hungrily and somehow Gray knew that tonight would be the night they would join their bodies to their souls. They would finally become mates in every sense and both his body and his soul were filled with joy.

They heard two throats clearing and they jumped apart in shock, embarrassed by the openness of their display.

If Silver had any doubts left about his son's feelings for the Fire Dragon Slayer they were now put to rest. He smiled at the look on Gray's face when he looked at Natsu. The fire mage looked just the same. They were most definitely smitten with each other and Silver found that as much as he found it strange that his son had fallen in love with another man he could never mind it if it made Gray this happy. He even had a grandson on the way, even though the kid hated him at the moment. He wondered what Mika would have thought of Natsu and chuckled to himself.

Lyon looked like he was getting ready to say something to the pair but Silver shook his head at him. They were clearly having a moment, it was best to leave them to it.

Lyon waited a few moments for the two mages to get themselves under control and asked, "Are you guys going home tonight?"

Natsu answered, "No, we'll check into an inn tonight and head home tomorrow."

"You're welcome to stay at my house with us.", Lyon offered hospitably, although with the vibes they were emitting he rather hoped they would stay at an inn.

"Uhm thanks for the offer, ", Gray answered hurriedly, "but you've already got Silver. We'll just stay at an inn for the night. It's not big deal."

"Are you coming back to Magnolia with us?", Gray asked his father.

"That depends.", Silver replied, "Natsu can I talk to you tomorrow?"

"Sure.", Natsu said although he was a little uncomfortable with the idea. Was he supposed to ask for Gray's hand or something? He didn't think it worked that way for guys, besides they weren't getting married or anything. Although, he reminded himself, you are planning on doing some rather naughty things to his son later tonight. He sure as hell was not asking him permission for that!

"Does anyone want dessert?", Silver asked looking pointedly at Natsu. He was amazed at how much food that boy could put away. None of them did.

Silver went to pay for their dinner. When he returned to the table the others were ready to go.

"Lyon and I will be heading back to the guild.", Silver said before Lyon could protest. He pointed in the direction of the town center. "If you go that way, there are several inns, you should be able to find them easily."

While Gray talked to Lyon, Silver approached Natsu and whispered, "If you hurry, there is an apothecary that is open late on the way." He winked at an open mouthed Natsu and grabbed Lyon.

"We'll see you tomorrow. Come to the guild after breakfast.", Silver said.

Natsu nodded dumbly and started to pull Gray behind him, walking for all intents and purposes like a man on a mission. Silver supposed he was. He laughed as he headed back to the guild. His son was going to become a man in the oddest way possible. He hoped the Fire Dragon Slayer was gentle, based on the puppy dog looks the two gave each other they were both virgins. He chose not to count Natsu's unfortunate experience.

"You don't think they're going to go have sex do you?", Lyon asked curiously.

"Of course they are.", Silver said, "wouldn't you in their place?"

"I guess.", Lyon replied, then he asked the question he had been wondering about, "Who do you think is going to ,you know, top?"

"This time? Natsu. His slayer magic will demand it if it's part of a claiming ceremony. Even if it wasn't, that boy was raped,by someone wearing a copy of Gray's body no less. I know my son well enough to know that he will let him have full control of the experience, as he should. After that, your guess is as good as mine. I don't plan to waste much time thinking about it. It's not really any of my business.", Silver pointed out.

"Now we just have to get you with that water mage you're always talking about.", Silver teased, "You know if I end up joining Fairy Tail, I can put in a good word for you."

"She'll probably fall for you instead, you look like Gray.", Lyon said with an annoyed tone.

"Nonsense, we just need to work on your confidence."

"That might be the first time anyone has ever said that.", Lyon chuckled.

They entered Lamia Scale and sat with their friends.

"Slow down, Natsu. You're going to tear my arm off.", Gray grumbled, "Why are you in such a hurry anyway?"

"Your dad mentioned that there is an apothecary that is open late on the way to the inn, I want to find them before they close", Natsu said with an eagerness that Gray found adorable.

He looked around and spotted the apothecary a few businesses ahead. He pointed it out to his mate and they quickly made their way there. They entered and soon Natsu had turned as pink as his hair as he did not know where to look for the item that he wanted and was too embarrassed to ask the merchant for it.

Gray laughed at him and went up to the woman." Where could I find personal lubricants?"

The woman pointed him to the back of the store and they headed there. Natsu was wearing a pout at being shown up by his mate. They looked and smelled all the different kinds and chose one they both agreed on, Cinnamon Vanilla. Their second choice Strawberry was vetoed because it reminded them of Erza. Natsu paid for their purchase and they left the store with Gray teasing Natsu about his bashfulness.

They picked an inn at random and went in to request a room for the night. The innkeeper apologized to them profusely. The only room he had left had only one bed. They assured him it was fine, they were used to sharing a room on missions. He offered them a discount for the inconvenience. Natsu paid once again. They thanked the man again and hurried to their room.

They entered their room and quickly closed the door behind them. They stared at each other for a moment and Natsu immediately took the lead grabbing Gray's head and pulling it down gently to meet his lips. Gray wrapped his arms around Natsu's waist and pulled their bodies close as he leaned in to the kiss. For the moment Natsu was being gentle. His kiss loving but not demanding.

He let go of Gray and said with a smile, "I love you, stripper"

Gray felt himself melt into that smile. "I love you too, Pinkie."

Natsu frowned, "I hate that nickname."

"Well. I'm not exactly fond of stripper, either.", Gray pointed out.

Natsu grinned, "Fair enough, I love you, Gray Fullbuster"

"When you say it like that it sounds like you are asking me to marry you or something."

"Not exactly, but if we go through with this tonight, there's no turning back."

"I don't ever want to turn back. I've waited for years for this moment, Natsu Dragneel.", Gray said honestly, "Why tonight?"

"Because in all the time I've known you I have never seen you as happy as you are tonight,", Natsu said, "You have no idea how breathtaking you look and what that does to me. It's intoxicating. When I remember tonight, that's what I want to remember. Tonight we were happy."

"That might be the most romantic thing you have ever said to me.", Gray looked at him in awe, "I want you to promise me that you will tell me if something is too much for you."

"Tonight we'll free ourselves from the past.", Natsu told Gray, determination filled his eyes as he prepared himself to finally put his capture behind him.

Gray turned on the music lacrima in the room to muffle their sounds. "Come here."

Natsu groaned at the sudden huskiness in Gray's voice but did as he asked. Gray's scent was changing as he became aroused and it was driving the dragon slayer crazy.

"'I'm not a battle you have to win, idiot.", Gray whispered in his ear even as he nibbled at it gently. The chilly air that entered his ear along with Gray's words was doing things to his body, and the nibbles were not helping. "I'm already yours."

"Touch me.", Gray whispered as he took his shirt off.

Natsu moaned at the sight of Gray taking his shirt off just for him. He felt his lower body respond but he would ignore the need for now. After waiting and fantasizing all this time he did not want this to be over quickly. He traced his fingers tentatively over Gray's chest and proudly felt the hard muscle underneath. Muscles that he had helped develop through their years of constant fighting.

He took off the belt that held his overcoat closed and let his garment fall to the ground. He heard Gray's sharp intake of breath as he looked at him and smirked enjoying the reaction he had provoked. He moved closer to his mate anxious to feel his naked skin against his. How would it feel? Nothing could prepare him for the jolts of electricity that traveled through his body at the feel of Gray's skin touching his. He felt his nipples harden and that gave him an idea.

"Bed.", he ordered. He grabbed Gray's hand and led him to the large bed. He made sure to bring the bottle of lubricant they had bought and placed it on the nightstand.

Gray lay on the bed and Natsu took a moment to admire him. His mate was gorgeous and so sexy. He smiled as he took off his pants and stayed in his boxers. He placed his hand on Gray's belt and looked at him, asking him silently if it was ok. Gray nodded and let him unbuckle his belt. Natsu stopped again at the button and Gray gave an impatient growl and took off his pants himself. They were both down to their boxers now.

"I haven't seen you like this very often.", Gray said as he admired Natsu's body. He noticed the bulge inside his mate's boxers. He wanted so much to touch him but he had to be patient. What had happened to Natsu was not something to be trifled with, he had to let him do things at his own pace. Gray didn't want to fuck this up and scare him away but Gods he wanted him so much.

"I can't say the same for you.", Natsu teased, "Blaming it on Ur all these years."

Natsu took a deep breath and calmed himself down. They were really going to do this. He climbed on the bed and straddled the ice mage. He lowered himself and kissed the ice mage with as much passion as he had in him. The reaction was instantaneous, he could feel Gray harden beneath him as Natsu entered his mouth with his tongue. The ensuing battle was as heated as any of their fights but Gray finally let him win. This was one instance where losing was actually winning. Holy fuck, Natsu could kiss and the heat in his mouth felt so good. He was glad he had turned on the music lacrima. They were already being loud. He felt weak.

Natsu began to move his way down from Gray's lips with his tongue. He dragged his tongue down Gray's throat slowly, tasting his skin. He continued to make his way down to Gray's chest leaving a trail of hot air down Gray's skin that quickly cooled after Natsu moved on. Natsu finally got to where he wanted. He made his tongue pointy and used it to tease Gray's nipple.

Gray felt himself harden even more than he thought possible and Natsu stopped what he was doing, sniffing the air curiously. He smirked and covered Gray's nipple with his hot mouth. He began to suck on it, gently at first but he increased the suction as he grew more confident in his actions. Gray tried hard not to wiggle but fuck that felt good.

"Natsu", he gasped, "Can I touch you?"

For the first time since his capture Natsu nodded quickly seemingly without thought. "I'm yours too.", he managed to pant out as he moved from one nipple to the other. This time he blew on it before biting down. Gray made a rather lewd noise that gave Natsu pause.

"Good?", he asked shyly.

"Fuck yes!", Gray said enthusiastically encouraging his partner to continue. While Natsu continued to play with his nipples Gray used his hands to rub Natsu's back slowly moving down until he could place his hands underneath Natsu's ass and squeeze. He felt how toned and tight it was and began to wonder how it would feel to be inside of him. He felt Natsu tense above him but it didn't last long.

'These thoughts are not helping, Gray' , he chided himself. That was not going to happen tonight but they had plenty of nights like this in their future and pretty soon they would be living together in their new house. He would find out someday, whenever Natsu was ready to go there again.

He almost jumped when he felt Natsu's sinful tongue nearing the hem of his boxers. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he had missed the journey down.

"Is this ok?", Natsu fiddled with the hem not wanting to go any further until Gray said so.

Gray did not recognize the needy voice that begged "Please" but he could see smugly the effect it had on his lover. He lifted his ass to help Natsu take off his last remaining item of clothing.

He looked at Natsu shyly, having never had anyone see him in this state before. He was mildly embarrassed but Natsu just stared at him, not moving.

"Natsu?", Gray asked worriedly, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong.", he said dreamily, "I just want to remember the moment when I saw the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."

Gray started to laugh, "Ok, I was not expecting that."

"I'll show you to laugh at me, Pervy Popsicle", Natsu said before blowing warm air on Gray's cock. Gray stopped laughing immediately and began to moan, quickly switching back to begging.

"Natsu, please.", he managed to get out.

"I want to taste you.", was his only reply before he covered Gray's cock with his mouth. Moving slowly up and down, enjoying Gray's noises. He used his hand to work on the parts he couldn't easily fit in his mouth without gagging following the same rhythm. He used his other hand to work on Gray's balls, rolling them in his fingers and gently squeezing. As Natsu sped up his ministrations making use of his tongue he made sure to suck on every upward stroke. He began to hum wondering if the vibrations would add to the experience for Gray.

Gray desperately tried to touch every part of Natsu he could get his hands on but Natsu was quickly taking him to a place where there were no thoughts. There was only sensations and feelings and just as his cock was getting ready to explode so was his heart. He had never imagined sex could be so exhilarating and so full of emotions at the same time.

"Natsu! I can't hold on much longer.", Gray whimpered.

Natsu continued what he was doing but used his hand to make a beckoning motion.

'That's right', Gray thought, 'He said he wanted to taste.'

That was the last coherent thought he had as his entire body almost convulsed with a sensation that was many times stronger than anything he had experienced with himself. He screamed out his lover's name exaltedly. He was mildly embarrassed at the almost violent expulsion of liquid that was shooting into Natsu's mouth and he flushed in shame but the dragon slayer didn't seem to mind. He consumed every drop that he was able to coax out of Gray. He gave Gray's cock a sweet kiss as he let go of it.

"Are you ok, Snowflake?", Natsu asked as he looked at his lover with a smile that showed just how pleased he was with himself.

Gray lay like a puddle on the bed, no comeback at the ready. "That was amazing."

"Hmm, that tasted better than I expected.", Natsu commented.

"You know that when the time comes I have to bite you, right?", Natsu asked worriedly.

Gray nodded nervously. "I know. It's ok."

He got a second wind and changed their positions. With Natsu now underneath him he grinned cheekily, "My turn."

Natsu looked back at him his eyes full of need, "I like the sound of that."

"Can I take off your boxers? I want to look at you.", Gray asked.

"I told you already, Gray. I'm yours. You can do with me what you will."

Gray looked at Natsu's eyes. He was overwhelmed by the trust and the love he saw shining in those beautiful green eyes. Dear Gods, he was in so deep, He loved this man more than he had loved anyone before. He still couldn't believe his luck that this amazing man loved him back the same way.

"I love you, Natsu.", he needed to tell him, needed to have him understand just how deeply his love for him ran. He wished there was another word that could explain to Natsu how he felt. The word love was so overused. It was almost an insult to believe that someone could equate how they felt about a favorite food to what he felt for his mate. But it would have to do until he found a better one.

Natsu gave him his sweetest smile, the one he had only seen him direct at him. Gray thought he understood.

"I love you too, Gray", he assured the ice mage. "It almost feels like there should be a better word, don't you think?"

He did understand! Another smile graced his features as Natsu's words made him happy. Time to hear Natsu's sounds. He leaned down for a kiss. Natsu kissed him back hungrily. Gray tasted himself in Natsu's mouth, it felt very strange but he went with it.

"Gray?", Natsu asked, "Do you think you could do that to me? I want to know what it feels like."

"Anything for you." Gray said as he moved down to Natsu's cock. "Hey Natsu?"

Natsu looked at him inquisitively.

"I want to hear you.", Gray said, quietly asking Natsu to be vulnerable in front of him. Natsu startled but then nodded. He placed his hands on his sides and grabbed the bedsheets.

Gray grabbed Natsu's cock and began making love to it using his hands and his mouth and his tongue. He tried to do all the things that Natsu had done to him that he enjoyed and he was soon rewarded with melodious moans and pants. He heard his name being uttered with abandon and he smiled. Felt the intoxicating power of bringing his mate to a screaming, incoherent, sobbing mess. Sooner than he would have liked it was over and he was able to taste the dragon slayer's seed for himself. It was slightly salty but also sweet, he had been slightly worried that it would be hot or burning considering Natsu's heated body temperature. More importantly it wasn't disgusting like he'd feared.

He felt Natsu trying to pull him up towards him and he kissed his lover's cock just like Natsu had done to his. It was an oddly sweet gesture that he wanted to return.

They kissed each other for a few minutes as they lay content in each other's arms for the moment. Gray rested his head on Natsu's chest, idly listening to his heartbeat while Natsu played with his hair.

Their breathing had finally gone back to normal when Natsu said, "Are you ready?"

"I think so,", Gray said nervously, annoyed at himself for sounding so unsure.

"I'll be careful, we can take it slow together."

"I trust you."

"You have no idea how much that means to me.", Natsu said and he meant it. It had been a long journey that had led them to this point. Full of heartache and misunderstandings. Yet somehow they had still made it to this point, even if it took a deranged psychotic dragon goddess to get them to finally speak the truth to each other.

Natsu grabbed the lube and brought it with him. He was nervous as hell but he was trying not to show it. All he had to go by was a conversation he'd had with Loke a few weeks ago when he had started to think he was ready for this. Loke walked him through the process but that was still not the same as going through with it for the first time with someone who was just as nervous as him. He desperately wanted this to be pleasurable for both of them. Part of him believed if he screwed this up it would screw up their whole relationship as mates. He knew that was unreasonable but that didn't change how he felt.

"Natsu?", Gray said as he saw the panic in his love's eyes. "You're going to do fine ,just take it slow."

"Ok. Can you open your legs for me?"

Gray spread his legs as wide as he could and moved his knees up towards his chest, trying to give Natsu as much access as he could. He smiled encouragingly.

Natsu remembered to look at his fingers, he made sure his fingernails were short and there were no scraggly edges or hangnails before he drizzled the sweet smelling liquid all over his fingers.

"Relax."

He began to kiss the inside of Gray's thighs, moving ever closer to the ring of muscles he needed to widen. He slowly pressed his first finger in to the first knuckle. He felt Gray tense up and relax immediately. He pulled the finger out a bit and pushed it back in watching as the muscle tightened around his finger. He continued slowly letting Gray get used to the feeling of his finger inside him. In and out, in an out he tried to keep a rhythm going.

"I think I'm ready for another."

Natsu continued kissing Gray's legs as he added a second slicked finger. This time there was a groan. Natsu stopped until Gray nodded at him to continue. In and out a little faster now. Gray's groans turned into moans as Natsu moved his fingers around, scissoring them to create a larger space for himself. He touched something that felt firm and the reaction from Gray was immediate. The ice mage yelled in pleasure. Natsu added a third finger moving a little faster and making sure to hit that spot as much as possible.

"Enough!", Gray panted out."I want you. I want to feel you inside me."

Natsu smiled and took his fingers out. He drizzled some more lube in his hand and covered his cock completely until he could feel no dry spots. Loke had been very adamant about that. He had mentioned that it would be easier if Gray was on his hands and knees for this part but Natsu didn't like that. It made him feel like Gray was submitting to him. He didn't want that, he wanted to do this as equals. He wanted them to be able to see and hear each other as they experienced each other for the first time.

He lined himself up with Gray and grabbed the ice mage's legs and put them over his shoulders knowing they must be sore from being in the same position for so long. He looked into Gray's eyes as he pushed himself inside slowly. He stopped as soon as he saw Gray's discomfort. He grabbed Gray's already erect cock and began to pleasure him to help him relax. Gray nodded and Natsu pushed himself a little farther and stopped again. He could feel the tightness around him and it excited him, made him want to start thrusting but he didn't want to hurt his love.

They repeated this over and over until Natsu was completely inside of Gray. He sat there waiting, saying encouraging words while Gray growled at him that he was a fucking monster which made both of them laugh. He placed both of his hands on Gray's hips to keep himself from moving.

"Ok"

Natsu moved himself out until only his tip remained and he thrust in shallowly. He saw Gray bite his lip and he thrust in a little more deeply smiling as he heard the first moans erupt from Gray. The heat and the tightness were driving him crazy but still he kept himself under control waiting for a signal that it was okay to do more. It came sooner than he expected as Gray moved his legs to wrap them around Natsu's hips. He began to meet Natsu's thrusts startling a moan out of the dragon slayer as he felt himself completely engulfed by Gray's body. Natsu made sure to angle his hips to hit the spot that had driven Gray crazy earlier.

"Harder, I'm not a damn girl."

Natsu grinned at the challenge and let himself go, he let his instincts take over driving himself into the ice mage as hard as he dared. He was quickly rewarded by Gray screaming his name over and over culminating in a shower of white that Natsu had not been expecting. He kept driving into Gray faster and harder until he could feel his body tense up getting ready for it's own release.

He felt his canines begin to elongate as his body prepared for the mating. This was it, after this they would truly be bound in mind, soul and now body. He kept going feeling Gray watching him in awe. He readied himself for one last thrust as his body released inside of the ice mage. He screamed Gray's name, almost like a plea and while still inside him leaned over to bite him. His canines sliced through Gray's skin easily even as the ice mage grunted in pain. He felt his teeth drip something when he removed them and after he was done licking the blood he noticed that Gray's bite mark was healed. Their Soul Crystal began to glow and to his surprise Gray's canines had also lengthened and Natsu felt his skin being pierced as Gray imitated his actions. Natsu groaned as he felt Gray licking his blood. As soon as they were done the Soul Crystal went back to normal and so did Gray's teeth. Natsu pulled himself out of Gray's body already feeling the loss of their connection.

They got up and ran a bath to cleanse their tired bodies. Both felt happy and in love. They sat in the warm water letting it seep through their sore bodies as they washed each other gently. They were mates at last. Nothing could separate them. Nothing but death and even then they should reunite in their next life assuming Natsu did not die first.

"I love you, Gray.", Natsu said drowsily, "Forever."

"I love you too, Natsu", Gray said as he grabbed his mate from the tub. He dried him off as the fire mage whined cutely. He carried him slowly to the bed finding it a little more difficult to walk than usual. He whispered into the other's ear, "Forever is not long enough."

They fell asleep happily sated, in each other's arms as the music lacrima lulled them to a dreamless sleep.

A/N Dear lord, that is the absolute longest sex scene I have ever written. It is meant to be somewhat cute, awkward and innocent like they are at this stage in their relationship. So if you get that from it then I did my job well. Which is good because these are my least favorite scenes to write. Translation: It's not meant to be smut so if that's what you were expecting I apologize.

I tried to put in some mentions and reactions that dealt with natsu's rape but I did not want it to overtake the experience or the narrative, and neither did Natsu ;). Thank you to SilverWhiteDragon for betaing this chapter for me. I usually read my chapter aloud to my husband but I was not feeling it this time. And can I just say, I love my Silver Fullbuster.

I wanted to add another note before I forget. SilverWhiteDragon mentioned that Gray explaining to Silver about Natsu's pregnancy could be confusing to people who read the first part so I wanted to go ahead and explain better:

In this world there are no submissive dragon slayers. None of the other dragon slayers had ever heard of it when Natsu asked male dragon slayers can't, I repeat can't, get pregnant naturally. Natsu situation is a special case and yes Tiamat calls him a submissive but Rogue is correct in saying she was messing with Natsu. It was meant to confuse him and was part of her psychological torture just as much as letting him know Gray was definitely his mate before telling Natsu he can never have him. As far as the pregnancy itself here is the explanation I gave SilverWhitDragon back while I was still writing To Kill A Dragon:

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Natsu has no eggs in his body that could be fertilized like a typical woman so the solution he was given by Tiamat (which was meant for actual dragons not dragon slayers) did something to allow a magical being to be created inside of him and you can throw in the fact that it worked to her being a goddess. I think had it been given to an actual dragon it would have produced an egg that would have been fertilized, excreted out and they would have had to incubate it. However, because it is being given to a creature that only has some dragon aspects it behaved differently. I think the main reason Tiamat gave it to him was to reveal to him who his mate is (if you remember Gray only kissed him after he drank the solution) and then take that hope away by claiming Natsu for herself (psychological torture). It also helped to make him horny enough that he would "accept" her. I think in her mind the baby was a gamble but it did pay off.

Basically it created a magical entity made of ethernano particles (magic) which contains a DNA mapping of what it will look like once it is independent of its host and it is sitting there sustaining itself with some of Natsu's magic while growing a magical container that can sustain his own power. When he is "done" he will use that energy (power) to create his own body. He looks like Natsu because he's a product of Natsu's dragon magic which is his life essence (genetic material), and Gray's human genetic material combined with hers (godly side).

Anyway hope that clears things up. If it doesn't I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.


	4. The Thing About Devil Slayer Magic

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

Chapter 4: The Thing About Devil Slayer Magic

Natsu woke up to a feeling of complete peace with the world. He felt fingers running through his hair softly and smiled as he remembered the events of the previous night.

"Hmmm. Good morning, love.", he turned on his side to look at Gray who had apparently been watching him sleep.

"Good morning.", Gray replied and moved closer to kiss his mate. They were both smiling at each other like idiots, feeling happy and warm and with zero desire to get up yet.

"Do you want to go ahead and tell me what happened yesterday at Sabertooth?", Gray asked lazily as he kept playing with Natsu's hair.

"Ok. First of all Sting and Rogue definitely like each other but neither one of them will make a move."

"Somehow, I don't think that was what made you upset.", Gray observed.

"No, actually it did because Sting is being an idiot."

"Let them be, they'll figure it out on their own."

"Fine.", Natsu sighed, "Anyway, I talked to Sting about what happened with Kai and he was really sorry. He apologized and said that he owed Kai a great debt that he would try to repay."

"Ok, still not hearing what actually upset you."

"Fine, but you're not going to like it."

"I figured as much, but you know you can tell me anything.", Gray assured him.

"I went to see Rufus.", Natsu began but Gray's fingers tightened in his hair in a slight pull as he quickly interrupted.

"Ok, I lied. What did you go see him for?", he growled.

"Relax, actually I have you to thank. If it wasn't for how much you dislike each other I doubt he would have helped me."

"Please tell me you didn't let him touch you."

"About that -", Natsu grinned.

"Natsu! That's not funny!"

"You are so easy to rile up, Ice Princess. He just touched my head."

Gray relaxed a small amount, "And why did he do that exactly?"

"Well if you stopped being jealous I would tell you."

Gray glared at him "I am not being jealous!"

"Whatever you say, Snowflake. I described Zeref to Reedus and he drew me a picture. I showed the picture to Rufus and he used it to look through my memories. I wanted to see if he could find Zeref in there. And he did, he found him one more time. When I was little he went to see Igneel and they were fighting about something although he was not able to tell me what."

"So you saw Zeref when you were little and Igneel knew him?", Gray repeated making sure he had understood.

"Yes, but that's not the weird part. Apparently my memories have been altered."

"What do you mean altered, you mean changed?", Gray asked confused about what Natsu was telling him.

"No, I guess you could say they have been locked away. Rufus could see nothing before Igneel took me in and the weirdest part is that I think Igneel was the one who did it."

"Why do you think that?"

"I talked to Sting and Rogue and they still have their memories from before and they said that their dragons told them that they had altered their memories against Igneel's wishes. That's why they thought they had killed their dragons."

"So you think what?"

"Rufus thinks that there is something in my memories that someone doesn't want me to remember.", Natsu shrugged, "But I mean I was little what could I possibly have known or seen that would make Igneel do that?"

"And you're sure it was Igneel?"

"I'm not sure of anything, but it makes the most sense."

"I'm sorry, love. I can't imagine what that must feel like.", Gray lay on his back and snuggled Natsu on his chest.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my plans to see Rufus."

"It's ok, I get it. I understand why you felt the need to do it but in the future remember that you can trust me."

Natsu's stomach rumbled loudly.

"We should get up and get breakfast, we worked up quite the appetite last night", Gray grinned at him.

"I guess we have to get up sometime.", Natsu said sadly.

"Hey, do you know what your dad wants to talk to me about?"

"Sort of. I asked him to come back to Magnolia with us and he wants to make sure it's what you want as well. He doesn't want to come between us."

"That's considerate of him. Why would he think I wouldn't want him to?", Natsu said puzzled.

"You really are a Flame-Brain.", Gray said fondly, "He feels guilty about all the things that happened with you at Tartaros."

"Oh, that.", Natsu sighed, "I don't really want to talk about that."

He got up from the bed and set about finding his clothing from the previous evening and packing it away in his pack. He pulled out a change of clothes and put it on.

"You're going to have to talk to him eventually, avoiding problems only makes them worse."

Natsu scratched the back of his head and shrugged, "I guess."

They grabbed the rest of their belongings, checked out and looked for a place to eat a late breakfast.

o-o

Lyon watched his houseguest of the past two months pack away his meager belongings in a knapsack.

"Are you sure you want to do this?", Lyon asked with a hint of sadness in his voice. In the time that Silver had been staying with Lyon he had grown very fond of the Devil Slayer. "You could always join Lamia Scale, you know. We'd all love to have you. Even the old hag."

"I know, but I have to do this. I've already wasted too much time. I have a lot of things I need to atone for.", Silver said honestly, "To all three of them and in all honesty I have no idea how long I'm going to be around. I also have a mission I need to complete. E.N.D is still out there and I'm the only one who can take him out."

"Besides ", Silver grinned wolfishly, " I'm going to be your inside man at Fairy Tail, remember?. We'll have you together with Juvia before you know it!"

Lyon snorted. "I suppose if both you and Gray are there I'll have more excuses to come visit."

"That's the spirit!", Silver said. He paused in his packing to look at his new son figure, "How come you didn't join Fairy Tail in the first place?"

"When I was trying to surpass Ur by destroying Deliora, a lot of mages left Lamia Scale to join me. I felt like I owed it to them to return with them. Besides I don't think Gray would have accepted me back then even though he was the one who suggested I join a guild in the first place.", Lyon replied, "Lamia Scale was the right choice for me, I don't regret it."

"It's just, it's been such a long time since I had anyone I could think of as family.", Lyon said seriously, "And Gray does so much stupid shit that I find myself constantly worried I'm going to lose him too. Now that you're leaving to join him I feel like I'm being left behind."

Silver wrapped the ice mage in a large bear hug. "We're not leaving you behind, stupid. We're just a train ride away and you don't need an excuse to come visit. You're always welcome to crash at my place, wherever that may be."

He released Lyon and ruffled the mage's perfect hair knowing full well he had spent a long time getting it just right. Amused by Lyon's irritated glare Silver grinned and said, "Now that I've given you something else to worry about I'm going to go to the guild and wait for the boys. See you in a bit."

He grabbed his belongings and made his way to the front door. He put his hand on the doorknob and stopped. He turned around and said, "Thank you. You didn't need to take me in and you certainly didn't need to listen to me. I won't forget it."

He walked out without waiting for an answer and made his way to Lamia Scale. When he arrived Natsu and Gray were already there, sitting very close to each other at a table with Jura. They were having a discussion on the current state of the Fairy Tail Guild as well as Makarov's possible whereabouts. Apparently the old mage had taken off without telling anyone where he was headed, immediately after claiming that Fairy Tail was disbanded. Everyone was beginning to become concerned after receiving no word for months, but no one seemed to know where he could have gone. Jura started to tell them about the Wizard Saint's efforts to reform the Magic Council.

He placed his knapsack in a corner where it wouldn't be in the way and headed over to the table.

"Good morning boys, everything go alright last night?", Silver grinned mischievously as he took a seat at the table across from Natsu. In response to his question two very red faced Fairy Tail mages glared at him causing the Ice Devil Slayer to chuckle.

He noticed Natsu kept giving him somewhat nervous looks and he decided to put him out of his misery.

"Come on,", he said to the Fire Dragon Slayer, "Let's go for a walk."

He saw Gray squeeze his lover's hand to reassure him and smiled. Natsu stood up regaining some of his usual confidence and they walked outside. They walked to the the town's riverwalk and found a bench where they could sit and talk while gazing at the river. They sat in uneasy silence for awhile as Silver tried to figure out how to start.

"I wronged you in so many ways.", Silver began awkwardly, "I kind of don't know where to start."

"You don't really have to say anything. It's all over, there's no need to revisit any of it. We won the battle and now we move on."

"You're wrong about that.", Silver said, "You are the most important person in the world to my son and I almost took you away from him. I can never really forgive myself for that."

"As I understand it, there was nothing you could have done about it.", Natsu said tensely, "I know better than anyone that Tiamat always got what she wanted in the end. As for the other stuff, I couldn't have expected you to know."

"Do you want to talk about it?", Silver asked gently, " From the little I've heard about what happened to you, it might help."

"I'm done talking about it.", Natsu said firmly, "My father taught me to look to the future and that is what I'm doing. There is only pain in looking back and it sure as hell won't change anything that happened."

"I appreciate the effort but all of this is unnecessary, I forgive you for anything you think you did to me.", Natsu said evenly while staring straight ahead at the river, "The way I see it there's only one thing you have to apologize for and that's hurting Gray. You do that again and we will have a problem. He's my mate and I will stop at nothing to keep him and Kai safe. If you're ok with that then I welcome you into our lives with open arms but if you're not I suggest you stay here with Lyon."

"Fair enough.", Silver said, "I am sorry for hurting Gray, sometimes it feels that it's all I've ever done. I wish I had known that he had survived.

"I'm glad Gray has you again. As for me, I'll admit I'm struggling with this a bit. I wish I had gotten my father back too, but I'll get over it. I find it strangely ironic that I spent years looking for my father and lost him whereas Gray never looked for you and still somehow managed to find you ", Natsu said with some frustration.

"I'm very sorry about your father and I would never attempt to take his place, but it you ever need me, you are my family now too, Natsu. So even if you don't think it's necessary I intend to make it up to all three of you."

Natsu looked at Silver for a long time, then he suddenly smiled, "I might have to take you up on that someday."

Silver went to put his arms around the boy and then stopped himself as he remembered that Gray had mentioned Natsu had issues with being touched as a result of his capture. Natsu gave him a small smile, "I'm mostly ok now as long as I can see it coming."

He allowed himself to be embraced by Silver and tried to keep his body relaxed. Silver patted him on the back. "You make him very happy, thank you."

"He does much more for me than I could ever do for him.", Natsu replied truthfully and after gazing at the river for a few more minutes he stood up. "We should head back, it's a long walk back to Magnolia."

"We're walking?", Silver asked with surprise.

"Yeah, it's not that far and I get motion sick on the train."

Silver looked at him with amusement and Natsu scoffed , "Yeah yeah, I know it's lame. It's the one downside of being a dragon slayer."

They walked back to Lamia Scale in comfortable silence.

o-o

Gray and Lyon were talking at a table. Lyon was filling Gray in on what had happened with Silver for the last two months. They had tried to heal him with no success but it seems that he had a high level of regeneration and with time the wounds had healed themselves.

"Makes sense.", Gray said, "All the slayers that I know have high regenerative abilities. Look at Natsu and Laxus."

"As for the rest, he had a lot of nightmares in the beginning but hasn't for awhile.", Lyon reported, "he's a really cool guy. You're lucky."

"I know", Gray smiled. He did consider himself lucky at the moment. He had managed to survive Tartaros with his family intact. Lyon had come out in one piece, his father was still alive and Natsu and Kai had managed to survive against almost impossible odds. He and Natsu had finally mated, their son would soon be born and his father was coming back to Magnolia with them. As far as he was concerned everything was coming up roses for him. Sure they might have Zeref and E.N.D to deal with in the not too distant future but they would train hard to get stronger and when the time came they would take them on and somehow figure out a way to come out victorious like they always did. He wondered briefly where this optimism was coming from, it was very unlike him.

"Gray?", Lyon stared at his brother intently, "What the hell is wrong with your face?"

"What are you talking about?". Gray asked nervously. He tried to find a mirror in the guild hall to see what Lyon was referring to. Lyon dissolved into hysterics as he watched his brother scramble over to Sherry to ask her for a mirror .

Gray stopped and finally realized that Lyon was referring to his smile. "Jerk.", he muttered but he smiled good naturedly. He sat back down as Sherry looked at them fondly.

"Lyon, did Silver ever talk to you about his magic?", Gray asked, "It feels like every time I ask him about it he avoids the subject."

"Not really.", Lyon said, "He didn't seem very interested in discussing his time with Tartaros. We mostly talked about the times before he died."

Natsu and Silver entered the guild then and they dropped the subject. Natsu made his way over to Gray and Lyon.

"Time to go Ice Princess, are you ready?"

Gray nodded and went to get their packs. They said their goodbyes to the members of Lamia Scale and along with Silver, headed back to Magnolia.

"So what's the deal with your magic?", Natsu asked, "How come I'm not able to melt your ice like I can melt Gray's?"

"I imagine it has to do with the source of the ice.", Silver responded.

"I wanted to talk to you about that.", Gray said taking the opportunity that Natsu had inadvertently created for him. "I want to learn how to use your magic. I think it could be very powerful when combined with my ice-make magic."

"Devil Slaying magic is indeed very powerful and I would like to teach it to you but there are a few things you have to understand before you decide whether you want to learn it or not."

"Like what?", Natsu asked curiously.

"Well from what I understand Dragon Slayers are enchanted by their dragons or inserted with a lacrima, whereas God Slayers can be taught a few different ways. The first step to learn Devil Slaying magic requires you to summon a devil from the Nine Hells and take him into your body. On your death they will be returned to the world from whence they came."

"Hold up. Are you saying there is a devil inside of you right now?", Natsu stopped and grabbed Silver's arm.

"Yes, he's lived inside me for seventeen years.", Silver said, "His name is Meritos."

"There are different types of devil slayers and the summoning ritual is different for each element. I chose an Ice Devil.", Silver said calmly.

Natsu looked at Gray and saw his fascination with the topic. He seemed to have no problem with what Silver was saying.

"No, hell no.", Natsu said out loud.

Gray looked at his mate, "What's the matter, Flame Breath?"

"What do you mean what's the matter?", Natsu said, "There is no way you're doing that."

"You can't make decisions for me.", Gray said beginning to get angry. Sure, the idea sounded a little scary but his dad had been doing it for seventeen years and he was fine and it would make him more powerful. "It's just a powerup Natsu."

"It's not a just a powerup, you idiot. Laxus giving me my lightning attribute is a powerup. This is accepting a complete other being inside you."

Silver watched the couple argue. This is why he had not mentioned anything earlier but it was something that they would have to figure out on their own.

"You have a complete other being inside you right now.", Gray pointed out.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer.", Natsu was becoming furious. How dare he equate what had happened to him with this.

"You're being irrational."

"I would be very careful with what I say right now if I were you.", Natsu snarled.

"It's just another way to get stronger, it will help me protect you and Kai and everyone else. Why can't you see that? We can even fight E.N.D with it."

"At what cost? What if you can't control it, what then? It sounds like it's irreversible."

They both looked at Silver, waiting for his answer. "It's not irreversible but it's a bitch to get the devil out. They are not going to want to return to their world. It's not very pleasant from what I understand."

"See? It's not irreversible.", Gray said smugly.

"Is that really all you heard?", Natsu screamed in frustration. "I did not sign up to be mated to a devil. I love YOU, I always have. I want YOU. Are you really willing to mess up everything for a powerup? Did last night mean nothing to you?"

Natsu waited for Gray's reply but the ice mage only stood there staring at him, too shocked by Natsu's outburst to be able to say anything.

"You know what? Don't answer that." He took a deep breath to try to calm himself down. He didn't want Gray to see how much his silence had hurt him. "I'll see you later."

He cast Fire Dragon Claw and ignited his feet in flames. He jet propelled himself towards Magnolia and Gray and Silver could do nothing but watch him leave.

"Well, you screwed that up well and proper.", Silver snapped at his son. He was a little peeved at how Gray had treated his mate.

"He's overreacting.", Gray grumbled.

"He's not, he brought up some valid concerns that you don't seem to want to consider.", SIlver said seriously, "Not to mention you were rude and condescending. What the hell were you thinking equating his rape and pregnancy to this? I can't imagine any of that is easy to deal with on a daily basis and he didn't choose any of it. This is a choice. "

"Shit, I didn't mean it like that.", Gray said finally realizing his mistake.

"Look, I won't lie. I was lucky, the devil that I summoned is very reasonable and I am also already dead. As far as I knew I had no family. Our situations are completely different. Realistically you have no idea who you are going to summon. The old man that taught me this told me some horror stories about summonings gone wrong. I will be happy to teach you my magic but I will not do so if Natsu is not on board. I said I would not come between you two and I meant it."

A/N This is one of those few chapter where I actually knew the name before writing it :). Now we start seeing Silver trying to be a little more parental as he sees Gray make stupid decisions and you learned something about devil slaying magic.

This is where the wiki becomes useful. As more Forgotten Realms elements come into play it gives you one space where you can look at stuff. Every chapter summary will have links to spells or elements. wiki/Chapter_04:_The_Thing_About_Devil_Slayer_Magic.

Thank you to SilverWhiteDragon, Eclipsing_Paradise, animecrazy127 and deinspanjer for telling me what you thought about the last chapter. The sound of crickets can be nerve wracking especially for a chapter that was as difficult for me to write as that one was.

As always I really appreciate hearing from you. Tell me what you like, what you don't like. It helps me improve the characters and the storyline as the story !


	5. If You Love Something Very Much

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

Chapter 5: If You Love Something Very Much...

Gray spent the rest of the walk home in deep thought. He'd fucked up, there was no other way to look at it. He wanted nothing more than to find Natsu and apologize for his thoughtlessness. He could feel Natsu's rage coursing through the bond and he winced.

Natsu was fire, his feelings were always very close to the surface. They endeared him to everyone around him and fueled his magic to give him seemingly infinite power. He was chaos, unpredictable and fierce. How many times had Gray seen him defeat enemies against seemingly impossible odds? How many times had Natsu gotten back up when he had nothing left and still managed to fight with nothing but his feelings and his will to protect his friends? Natsu felt strongly, and quickly and he had no problem acting on his feelings. It was just who he was.

Gray wasn't like that. He was ice, he kept his feelings hidden and buried well below the surface. He presented a cold and distant persona to the world. It protected him from the pain and loss of his past and uncomplicated his present by keeping him from developing new attachments. He was order, he made logical, calculated decisions based on the information that he had and he used his magic in much the same way. It didn't mean he couldn't access his feelings, they just took awhile to work their way up to where he could express them. He didn't try to cultivate close relationships, most of the time. Natsu had always been the exception. He had always been able to get under his skin and he'd soon found he needed the idiot. Sometimes, however, Gray's delayed emotions got him into trouble with the hothead, who didn't seem to understand that he worked differently. It took him a bit longer to understand his feelings and act on them. It was just who he was.

They finally reached Magnolia and headed to Gray's apartment to drop off their bags and wash up before heading to the guild. Gray hoped that Natsu had headed there even though he knew in his heart that it was unlikely.

"You can go look for him if you want.", Silver said kindly, "We can go to the guild another time."

"No.", Gray sighed. He could still feel Natsu's anger, "He's still too mad to listen to anything I have to say. Might as well introduce you properly."

They entered the guild and were quickly greeted by a blue flying cat that made its way over to them.

"You're back!', Happy cheered, "I missed you guys!"

He looked around and behind Gray. He saw Silver but no Natsu."Where's Natsu?"

"I'm not exactly sure.", he replied as he scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Did you two have a fight?", Happy asked quietly.

Gray nodded and much to his surprise Happy gave him a hug and whispered, "Don't worry, I'll go find him and talk to him."

With that the Exceed once again activated his Aera magic and quickly left the guild in search of his partner. Gray hoped he found him, Natsu needed to talk and Happy was a good listener. He might like to tease, but he never judged anyone.

"Gray, you're back!", Mira smiled at him and then looked at his father next to him. "Hi there! We never got formally introduced last time. My name is Mirajane Strauss but you can call me Mira."

"Hello there!", Silver said in a friendly manner. He extended his hand to shake the take over mage's hand but quickly moved it back as the black markings of his magic appeared on his arm. He opted for a small bow instead, "I am Gray's father, the name is Silver Fullbuster, but you can just call me Silver. Am I correct in assuming you have some demon blood in you?"

"Yes, I do in fact. How did you know?", Mira asked, surprised that he had been able to tell just by looking at her.

"My magic, it reacts to demons.", Silver said with an apologetic look. He was going to have to be careful around her until he could convince Meritos that she wasn't an enemy. Even though he had been surrounded by demons in Tartaros they'd had a plan to take them out and that had been enough to keep his magic satisfied.

"Can anyone else in the guild be considered part demon?", Silver asked Gray.

"I don't think so.", he replied after thinking about it for a few minutes.

"Well, welcome to Fairy Tail.", Mira said unperturbed, "Would you like a drink? On the house of course, you were very helpful in our fight against Tartaros."

"Thanks, but aren't you upset about what I did to Natsu?", Silver asked, he had been expecting some kind of recrimination from the guild for his actions.

"Why would we be?", Erza called out from the second floor, it was her turn to act as Master. She made her way downstairs to greet her teammate and his father. "If you're here Natsu has already forgiven you and it would be silly for us to hold a grudge if he doesn't."

"Speaking of which, where is he?", Erza looked around trying to find the Fire Dragon Slayer.

Gray looked at her, terrified of her reaction if she found out they'd had a fight. It's funny how she could still make them feel like children. "He needed some time alone."

"I see.", she said in a tone that implied that he would be interrogated in the near future.

"Any word on Gramps?", Gray asked trying to take Erza's focus off of him and Natsu.

"No, Laxus went to check with a few of the Master's friends to see if they had heard from him. I expect him back tonight."

"Jura mentioned that the Wizard Saints are trying to reform the Magic Council.", Gray informed her.

"That's interesting, I had not heard anything about that.", Erza considered the implications of such a course of action, "It would be good for jobs to start coming in again. All the guilds are somewhat paralyzed until that happens, excepting Blue Pegasus of course. With the Council gone it's hard to find out what's going on in the magic world. Maybe we should consider sending someone to the other guilds to gather information in the meantime. I'll have to talk to Laxus about it."

"So Silver, do I take it that you are interested in joining our guild?", Erza asked the Devil Slayer bluntly.

"If you would have me, yes.", Silver answered.

"Of course we would like to have you, you have already proven yourself a most useful ally to our guild.", Erza said.

"Mira, can you get the stamp and get Silver setup?"

"Actually, someone else should probably do that.", Silver said, "Unfortunately, my magic is responding to Mira's demon blood at the moment."

"Oh, I suppose I can do it then,", Erza said, "Where do you want your mark and what color?"

Silver thought about it and decided to copy Gray's, it might prove useful in the future. He lifted his shirt and told her ,"Same as Gray's please."

"Welcome to Fairy Tail, Silver.", Erza congratulated him, "We currently have two masters. I, Erza Scarlet, am one of them. Laxus Dreyar, who is not here at the moment, is the other. You will meet him later. Gray, why don't you go around and introduce him to everyone."

Gray nodded in agreement and began to introduce his father to the few mages that were present.

o-o

Gray left Silver in the guild with Gildarts. The two mages had hit it off and were well on their way to becoming drinking buddies much to Cana and Gray's amusement.

He had felt Natsu's rage ebb away, although he wasn't exactly encouraged by the feelings that had replaced it. He thought that Natsu might have calmed down enough to where they could at least talk and listen to each other. He looked for him in all the usual places, Natsu's house, his apartment, the riverbank and South Gate Park. He was at none of those places. Gray gave up and used their soulbond to lead him to where Natsu was. He supposed he should have just used it from the beginning but he had wanted some time to think without the distractions that had been present at the guild.

He finally found him at the plot of land where they would build their home. He didn't know why he hadn't thought to look here first. Natsu was sitting with his back against a tree amidst the building materials that were strewn all about, remainders of the guild's construction. They had laid down the foundation for the house a few weeks ago and had planned to work on it more now that the guild hall was finally mostly finished.

Natsu looked up as he smelled Gray approach and then looked back down at the fire he had started to keep Happy warm. Happy was laying on his lap and Natsu was gently petting the Exceed's fur while the Exceed purred happily. When he noticed Gray, Happy gave Natsu an encouraging smile. He whispered something to the fire mage and flew off in the direction of the house that they shared.

"Can I sit down?", Gray asked.

Natsu just nodded. He didn't trust himself to speak yet. He'd made his decision, and he had a lot of things he needed to say but he wasn't quite ready to start. He felt Gray sit next to him and they both sat in silence for a while.

"I'm really glad we picked this spot for our house. It's so peaceful and the stars are beautiful at night.", Gray observed, "We should make a big deck for Kai to play in and -."

"I'm leaving on my training trip tomorrow, Gray.", Natsu interrupted with no trace of anger in his voice.

"What?", Gray asked in disbelief, "Natsu, I know you're mad, and you have every right to be but you don't have to go. I'm sorry for what I said, ok? I was a jerk, I didn't realize what I was saying."

"I was going to leave anyway,", Natsu reminded him, "I'm just moving the timing up by a couple of days.".

"I know you're sorry, I can feel it.", he said, finally looking at Gray with a small smile, "I also know that I tend to overreact and let my feelings overwhelm me when I get upset. That's why I've been sitting here for hours just thinking about everything. Everything that's happened, everything I'd like to have happen. This house, Kai, us being a family, it's all a very nice dream that I let myself believe we could have."

"What are you talking about?", Gray asked as his stomach tightened in nervous worry.

"You were right, I have no right to make decisions for you. If you want to learn Devil Slayer magic, I won't stand in your way. You need to understand something though. If you choose to become a Devil Slayer there will be a sentient being living permanently inside of you, he will become a part of you and whether you manage to control him or not, he will change you. You will cease to be the person that you are now, the one that I fell in love with all those years ago. I'm sorry, but as much as it hurts to say this, if that is the choice you make then I can't be with you."

"I think I made a mistake.", Natsu said softly, "I should never have mated with you last night. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret it and I will always cherish the memory but I was too caught up in my feelings for you and on being ready myself. I didn't stop to think about whether *we* were ready. I love you, Gray. I need you to know that, but mating means a lot more to a dragon slayer than it does to a regular human."

"Are you breaking up with me?", Gray asked with anger, "Because I want to learn devil slayer magic?"

"It's not so much that you want to learn Devil Slaying magic, it's the fact that you didn't stop to think about how accepting another being into yourself would affect us. I feel like my thinking is changing. I am now trying to think in terms of us but it feels like you are still trying to think in terms of you."

"I'm not breaking up with you, Ice Princess.", Natsu said trying to reassure Gray, "I am a dragon slayer and you are my mate, there will never be anyone else for me. Even if Tiamat had managed to keep her claim that would not have changed. She might have able to keep me away from you but she could never have forced me to love her. I would have still loved you."

"You're human so the same doesn't hold true for you. You can still choose to love whoever you want. I feel like you got caught up in all the craziness surrounding me after my capture. I think you felt guilty about what you felt was your role in the whole thing. Everything went so fast. Hell, we were soulbound before we even went on a single date. I'm grateful for everything you've done for me but you don't need to save me anymore. You want to go in directions that I can't follow and if that's what you really want, I can let you go."

"Now you're telling me you know how I feel better than I do?", Gray was not sure how he had been expecting this conversation to go but it was certainly not like this. He wanted to lash out but he couldn't. He felt detached, like he was listening to words that were being said to someone else and it scared him because he could sense how important this moment was.

"Damnit, Ice Block you're not listening to me.", Natsu yelled then calmed himself down. He was disappointed in himself that he had allowed Gray to anger him but he was no less determined to continue with what he needed to say, "I will not fight about this. It's too important."

"I'm not trying to tell you how you feel, I'm trying to tell you that you have a choice. Now that the craziness is over and you have your father back, you have to decide if we are still what you want. Because If it isn't, all of this: the mating, the soulbond, it's all undoable,"

"The Soulbond is irreversible. The book said so.", Gray said trying to make Natsu stop talking this way.

"The book was wrong, nothing is irreversible.", Natsu said stoically, "We've learned that over and over, it's just a question of whether you're willing to accept the consequences."

"When did you find this out?", Gray asked. He felt betrayed and honestly a little hurt that Natsu would have been trying to find out how to break their bond, "Have you been trying to get rid of it all this time?"

"Of course not." Natsu scoffed but then softened his tone. "I found out when I tried to stop Kai from fighting Acnologia. He told me he had no choice but to fight because the other dragons would not be able to fight much longer and there was no one else left to challenge Acnologia. He had tried to get Tiamat to help but she had refused. I couldn't let him fight on his own but I knew what would happen to you if I died. I couldn't let you become a Soul Shadow so I asked him if Igneel had taught him anything about soulbonds and he said he had. A soulbond can be broken, Gray, but in order to do so the dragon has to give up all claims to his mate in this life and all others. The two souls can never be together again."

Gray stared at him, shocked by the words but not knowing what to think or feel about the bomb that Natsu had just figuratively dropped on him. It was too much, so he resorted to the one emotion he could usually count on when dealing with Natsu even as he hated himself for it.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Flame Breath?", Gray yelled, "We had one fight. One goddamn fight because I resented you trying to make a decision for me. We've spent our entire lives fighting with each other, did you think that was going to stop just because we're together? I came here to apologize to you for being an inconsiderate asshole but you're really pissing me off right now. How could you even think that I would want that?"

"To be honest, I'm putting all my hopes on you not wanting that. I want you to pick *me*", Natsu said as his tears came unbidden, "but I refuse to trap you into it."

"You don't need to learn a new magic to become more powerful, Snowflake. You should trust the magic you already have. The magic that Ur taught you and Lyon. You should train harder and make it stronger. It has never failed either of you and if you believe in it and in yourself enough it never will.", Natsu said with conviction as he wiped away his tears.

They stared at each other for a long time in silence, neither one wanting to be the first to look away.

"Happy and I are leaving tomorrow morning. We'll be gone for a few months. I'll train and I'll look for Zeref."

"Are you out of your mind? You can't go off searching for Zeref by yourself."

"I'll be fine. He's never really tried to hurt me and he might have the answers to my questions."

Gray looked at his mate and sighed. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe you're better off not knowing the answers? If it really was Igneel that did that to you, do you think he would have done so without a good reason? Finding out what it was he was trying to protect you from would go against his wishes. It might very well ruin *you*."

Natsu looked back at him impassively, his stubbornness already out in full force. Gray could see that he wanted to know what was hidden in those memories and he would not stop until he found a way to recover them. Gray contained his frustration with the dragon slayer in the interest of not making things even worse before they parted ways.

"Damnit Natsu, please don't go. We can talk this over.", Gray entreated.

"Don't make this any harder than it needs to be, I'm already fighting every dragon instinct I possess to be able to be away from you.", Natsu looked at Gray pleadingly, "It'll be easier for you to think about what you want if I'm not around to distract you."

Gray looked at his mate and saw the sadness and determination that he felt written all over his face. Natsu had made up his mind, there would be no changing it at this point. Gray didn't have to like it but he had to respect it.

"Alright, I can see that this is important to you, to us", he quickly corrected, "I won't try to stop you. I promise I'll use the time to train and really think about what I want. I'll give you my answer when you return, even though I feel I could give it to you right now. But you have to promise me that you will be careful and not do anything stupid and that you'll come straight back if Kai is born.", Gray said seriously.

"I promise.", Natsu said. There was nothing more to be said after that.

"Watch the stars with me?", Gray asked as he sat back against the tree and spread his legs so that Natsu could sit in between them. When the dragon slayer sat down he wrapped his arms around him and held him against his unclothed chest.

Gray's heart hurt and his insides felt wretched and his tears wanted to flow but he buried his feelings and chose to feel Natsu's instead, hoping that they would help him understand. He would have plenty of time to explore his own feelings in Natsu's absence.

He tried to memorize everything about the moment. How handsome Natsu looked in the starlight, how his warmth made Gray feel alive, how Natsu's smell made him think of home, how he felt like he could spend hours just running his fingers through the dragon slayer's soft hair, and how right the dragon slayer felt in Gray's arms. He held on to all of Natsu for as long as he was able as they both sat quietly and looked up at the stars.

After a while they walked to Natsu's house and Gray watched his mate pack. It was the hardest thing he'd had to endure in a long time. They slept in Natsu's bed and shared kisses and innocent caresses. In the morning they walked to the guild with Happy, and Natsu said goodbye to everyone. Gray followed them outside to say a private goodbye and Happy gave them some privacy after saying his goodbye and asking Gray to keep an eye on Carla for him.

"I love you Gray. Hey,", Natsu said with a worried smile when he noticed Gray's sad expression, "we'll see each other soon and I'll write when I can. I can't wait to see how much we've both improved when I get back."

They kissed one last time before Natsu turned around and began to make his way out of town. All Gray could do was watch him leave. And then just like that, he was gone, leaving Gray alone to think about their future.

o-o

A/N When I wrote the original outline Natsu's leaving was supposed to go differently. They were going to mate (in Magnolia) and Natsu was going to realize that if he didn't leave quickly he would not be able to go at all. He wrote Gray a letter and left in the middle of the night, leaving behind a hurt and angry Gray. It was trite and I was never completely happy with it because it didn't entirely make sense to me. I moved up the mating to happen in Margaret Town and while I was at the grocery store yesterday this idea popped into my head and I liked it infinitely better. I liked the idea of them both trying to be mature and honest about the situation. Natsu actually sitting down to think about his feelings and expressing them honestly while raising his doubts about Gray's feelings, and giving him an out to do what he wanted. Gray letting him go even though it wasn't what he wanted because he recognized it was what Natsu needed made me like him better and showed his commitment to their relationship. I also think this will make it even more poignant when things continue to happen.

A shout out to all the wonderful people who reviewed or commented last time around: Fanfiction (EclipsingParadise, ClumsyKat, deboome, Puck100 and SilverWhiteDragon) and Wattpad (Mina_Dragneel) and a big thank you to everyone who favorited, followed, subscribed, bookmarked,kudo'ed, voted and reading listed this story. Your words and actions mean a lot to me and get me excited to continue. Until next time!


	6. When Exactly Were You Going To Tell Us?

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

Chapter 6: When Exactly Were You Going To Tell Us?

Happy watched Natsu stand outside of the Magnolia town limits with growing irritation. He had been watching Natsu just stand there for the last twenty minutes or so.

¨You have no idea where you're going,do you?", Happy sighed. He didn't know why he was even surprised.

Natsu turned to look at him and smiled sheepishly, "Well no, not exactly. I was planning on using the last few days to figure that out but then the whole thing with Gray happened and I decided to leave earlier."

"Natsu, are you sure you're doing the right thing?", Happy asked, "We can still turn around and go back."

"Yeah, I'm sure.", Natsu replied although the sadness in his expression was hard to miss. "You don't have to come though, you can stay with Carla." Natsu attempted a small smile. He hoped that Happy would not turn back. He really didn't want to be alone.

"What?! And have you hog all the fun, I don't think so!", Happy did his best to lighten the mood. He didn't understand why Natsu felt the way he did but it didn't matter. Natsu had always taken care of him and Happy would be damned if he would abandon him just when his partner needed him the most.

"So, what's the plan?", Happy asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. Give Gray time to think, get stronger, find Zeref. I'm kind of off script here. Normally I would just be looking for Igneel but now…" , Natsu shrugged and drifted off mid sentence looking lost.

Happy looked at him sadly not knowing what to say. He didn't think that Natsu had really come to terms with Igneel's death and it was uncomfortable to bring it up. He never knew how Natsu would react to the topic. Sometimes he wished that his father figure would open himself up to other humans, he was just a young Exceed and some of the things that Natsu went through were just too complicated for him to be able to help with. All he could really do was listen and make him feel loved. He often wondered if that was really enough. He'd been really hopeful when Natsu had started opening up to Gray but now Gray had become part of the problem and they were back to square one.

"You know Gray loves you, right?", Happy asked.

"I don't know anything right now, I can only hope he does.", Natsu said, "I'll find out when we return."

Happy sighed. That was one of the stupidest things he had ever heard come out of Natsu's mouth and he'd heard them all over the years. He quickly changed the subject.

"Where do you think Zeref can be? It seems like people look for him all the time but no one ever knows where he is."

"I was thinking about that.", Natsu said, "The first time we saw him was on Tenrou Island, what if he went back there? It would be a great place to hide. No one would ever think to go look for him there."

"I guess it's a good a plan as any.", Happy said, "So does that mean we're headed to Hargeon?"

"Yeah, I guess it does.", Natsu said as he followed the road that would eventually take them to the busy port city. "We'll have to charter a boat to get us there." He groaned at the thought of having to ride a boat for so long. "I don't suppose you could fly us there?", he asked hopefully.

Happy shook his head, "It's too far. Do you think he'll really be there?"

"It's the first place we saw him, might as well start there."

Natsu put his arms behind his head as he walked towards their destination, determined to enjoy the fresh air while he could.

o-o

"Ok, kid. The whole thrill of drinking with my son is gone.", Silver said as he slapped Gray's face gently but repeatedly, trying to get him to wake up out of his drunken stupor. "Snap out of it."

Gildarts and Cana watched on with concern. The day that Natsu had left on his training trip Gray had come to join them and they had happily welcomed him. Gray almost never drank with them and it had been fun to watch, the first day. He had told jokes and funny stories about his missions and his teammates.

The second day he was less a funny drunk and more of a sappy one. He went around telling everyone he loved them and hugging them which everyone still enjoyed because Gray was usually very reserved.

But the third day, he had become more of a violent drunk. He took offense at simple comments and tried to start a brawl with anyone who would let him. Then he'd just slumped on his stool and stared off into nothingness. That's where they were at the moment.

"What's wrong?", Silver asked. "This can't just be because Natsu went away on a training journey." Truth be told he was flying blind with the whole parent thing. The last time he'd really had to act like a parent Gray had been 8 years old and he'd had backup.

"Matchstick will be back before you know it.", Gildarts added trying to be helpful. "And then we'll get to hear about all the people he pissed off." He'd always liked Gray but back when he was younger he had kept everyone at arm's length and so Gildarts had focused more of his attention on Natsu who seemed to need it more.

"Alright, let's get you home. You've had enough.", Silver said as he lifted his son from the stool and half dragged him half carried him to the apartment they were sharing. He dumped him on the couch and walked into the kitchen to make a pot of the strongest coffee he could. Once it was ready he handed a mug to his son and said, "Alright, now you're going to tell me what's bothering you."

Gray looked at his father and laughed bitterly. "Natsu doesn't think I'm in love with him."

"What are you talking about?"

Gray drank the coffee after using his magic to cool it down somewhat. He made a face as he tasted how bitter it was but finished it regardless.

"Apparently I gave the idiot too much time to think and now he's got it into his head that the only reason I'm with him is because I got carried away by events and guilt. He said that he was a dragon slayer and so he did not have a choice in the matter but since I'm human I'm free to love whoever I want. He said he was willing to undo everything if that's what I wanted."

"Here's the best part. If he does that he would be giving me up in this life and all others.", Gray slurred his words somewhat. He slumped his shoulders as he once again thought about Natsu's words.

"If I'm being honest, Gray, I thought the same thing at first."

Gray snarled, "What the hell do you know? You don't know the first thing about me."

"That's not entirely true. I know who you used to be and I doubt the really important parts have changed much. Regardless, you didn't let me finish. That's what I thought at first, but after watching the two of you in Margaret Town I knew I was wrong. Did you get a chance to apologize?"

Gray relaxed somewhat. "I tried but then he just started talking crazy. He said if I want to learn Devil Slayer magic he won't stop me but I won't be the same person anymore and we can't be together."

"He's right you know. If you were to summon a devil and accept him into your body you would change in a lot of ways. I know I did. The first few years weren't pretty. You know, I know you don't want to hear this right now but it sounds like he's trying to make sure that you both want the same things. It's actually more mature than what I thought he was capable of."

"So the question remains, what is it you want?", Silver asked.

"I want him and Kai and the life we talked about. If the price for that is that I don't learn Devil Slayer magic then I'm perfectly fine with that.", Gray answered.

"Well there you go, there's your answer. So what's the problem?", Silver asked confused.

"I could have told him all that before he left.", Gray groaned, "The problem is, I don't know how to make him believe me."

Silver stopped and thought about it for awhile. He had already witnessed first hand how stubborn the dragon slayer could be at Tartaros. His eyes lit up as he thought of an idea that he thought would prove to Natsu once and for all that Gray was all in.

"How good are you at construction?', Silver asked his son.

"Huh? Alright, I guess. We've had to rebuild the guild a lot."

"We're going to build your house and have it finished before Natsu returns. If that doesn't make him believe you I don't know what will.", Silver grinned.

"That's actually a pretty good idea.", Gray said. The more he thought about it the more he was sure that it was the type of gesture that could prove to Natsu how important he and Kai were to him and show him how much he wanted them in his life.

"I still do want to get stronger though, during that whole mess with Acnologia and Tiamat I felt completely useless.", Gray said.

"So we'll train, my magic should be a good challenge for you since I'm immune to ice."

"Ok, that sounds good.", Gray said. Talking to his father had lightened his mood considerably. They found some paper and began to design Natsu and Gray's house.

o-o

Natsu and Happy finally arrived at Tenrou Island. The trip had been a nightmare with Natsu throwing up over the side of the boat the whole way there. The captain of the boat they had chartered agreed to come back for them in two days time. Natsu figured that would be more than enough time to explore the small island. Happy grabbed Natsu and flew him to shore.

They stood on the beach for a minute and decided it looked just like they remembered. Even though it felt like years, it had only been about half a year since they had been rescued by the members of Fairy Tail. They began to walk around looking for any sign that anyone was living there.

"You know we never did find the First Master's grave the last time we were here.", Natsu said, "I'd like to go and pay my respects."

Natsu, like all the other mages of Fairy Tail had grown very fond of Mavis. It was thanks to her that they had survived Acnologia's attack and it was with her help that they had won the Grand Magic Games. He wished he could have gotten to meet her when she was still alive.

"Do you think she knew Zeref?", Happy asked.

"I don't know, I never thought about it.". Natsu said scratching his head. "I suppose she must have or he would not have been able to be here. Not unless he was a Fairy Tail wizard. I'll definitely ask her the next time I see her."

"Ask me what?", a voice said next to them.

Natsu and Happy jumped, both startled by the unexpected voice. They turned to see Mavis Vermillion, their First Master, smiling at them.

"First Master, what are you doing here?", Happy asked.

"I felt there was someone on the island and I came to see who it was. I thought it might have been Makarov."

"They still haven't found him?", Natsu asked. He, along with all the other guild members, was worried about the old man. Even though he had been sore that their Master had chosen to disband their guild without even an explanation Gramps had been like family for too long for the fire mage to really hold a grudge. He could only think that he must have had a reason and it must have something to do with his disappearance. He had never been gone for this long without contact.

"No, but I imagine he'll turn up somewhere soon.", Mavis said, she was not yet too concerned by his absence although she wished she knew where he was.

"So, what are you two doing here on your own?", Mavis asked as she fixed her keen green eyes on them.

"I'm trying to find Zeref.", Natsu said.

"Zeref?", Mavis asked with interest, "Why would you want to find him?"

Natsu launched into an explanation of his dreams, and his memories as well as the times that he had already encountered the Black Wizard.

"I see.", Mavis said after listening to everything he had to say. She remained quiet for awhile, appearing to be in deep in thought. "I have met Zeref. I gave him permission to use this island as a shelter when he needs it but I can tell you he is not here now. I would be able to feel him if he was, just like I felt the two of you."

"I don't understand, First Master", Natsu said, "If he's evil then how is it you know him?"

"Natsu, Zeref's story is not mine to tell.", Mavis said, "I can tell you that he isn't everything that everyone says he is, otherwise I would not have given him permission to be here. However, I don't think it's a good idea for you to seek him out."

"I have to know.", Natsu said with determination. "Can you at least give me an idea of where to start looking?"

Once again Mavis drifted off appearing to be in deep thought. What did Zeref want with Natsu? Why would he show himself to the Dragon Slayer? She wished there was a way she could communicate with the Black Wizard but though she knew he could sense her presence he could not hear her. Mavis tried to remember everything Zeref had ever let slip about himself hoping to find something that would explain his interest in Natsu but nothing came to mind.

"I don't really know where he goes when he's not here.", she finally said somewhat unconvincingly. "How long do you plan to be here?"

"The boat that brought us here will return in two days.", Natsu answered. He got the distinct feeling that Mavis knew more than what she was saying but he didn't think it was in his best interest to call her out on it. He felt frustrated and lost since he had no idea where to go next.

"Well in that case..follow me.", Mavis said excitedly. She ran ahead and stopped a moment to make sure they were following. She spent the next few hours showing them around the island. She showed them a safe place to use for shelter as well as all her favorite places from when she had grown up there. She showed them which animals and plants were safe to eat, and which might be good challenges for training. She even showed them the location of her grave. She bid them farewell and disappeared as silently as she came but she was restless. She did not like not being able to figure out Zeref's intentions.

Natsu and Happy spent the rest of their time on the island exploring, fishing and training. They made one last visit to the First Master's grave and left her some returned to Hargeon relaxed but with no idea where to go next. They picked a direction randomly and began walking.

o-o

Gray and Silver sat at a table in the guild eating breakfast. The plans that they had drawn up for the house were laid out on the top of the table and they were discussing them. They intended to begin construction that day.

Erza came over and sat with them. She looked at the plans with interest and asked "What are those for?"

"They're plans we drafted up for the house that Natsu, Kai and I are going to live in.", Gray said proudly. They had worked on them for days, drawing and redrawing until they were happy with the results. They had come out quite well, nothing like the plans that Mira tended to draw for the guild constructions. "We start construction today.'

"They're quite impressive.", Erza said with a little envy, "These are much clearer than the ones we usually get for the guild." She had not noticed Mira had come to their table to ask if they wanted anything more. She did notice the tears that the take over mage was trying to hide as her efforts at drawing were once again ridiculed.

"Oh Mira.", Erza awkwardly tried to console the crying waitress , "I didn't mean anything by that, I love your plans. They're always so uhm…..colorful!" Erza's comments were followed by even louder cries by the take over mage.

Gray smirked behind his glass of orange juice, glad to not be the one to make Mira cry for once.

"Do you want some help?", Erza asked eagerly, already requipping into her construction outfit.

"No thanks, I think we've got it covered, besides you have a guild to run.", Gray said.

Erza tried to hide her disappointment, she was finding that she did not enjoy running the guild as much as she thought she would. Even though she enjoyed giving orders and being in charge she had quickly found that she enjoyed doing missions and going on adventures a lot more. She thought Laxus felt the same, seeing as how he kept disappearing for days with the Thunder God Tribe, always claiming they were looking for his grandfather. They had yet to find any useful information. The old man had not reached out to Yajima , Goldmine, Bob or even Porlyusica with his plans. Erza sighed, she could not wait for things to go back to normal. She and Laxus had received a summons from the new Magic Council. They were hoping that they could start receiving job requests after that.

Silver finished his food and started collecting their papers as they both got ready to leave for the building site. They spent half of the day building and the other half training. They continued this pattern for weeks and the house quickly began to take shape. Although Gray's magic was definitely getting stronger he had yet to beat his father in a fight. No matter how creative he got he hadn't been able to find a way to defeat someone who could ingest his magic and use it to strengthen their next attack.

Whenever they were in the guild hall Silver tried to talk Lyon up to Juvia. Juvia would listen to anything Silver had to say with heart shaped eyes that Gray immediately recognized, much to his amusement. Apparently Silver's likeness to his son had not been lost on the water mage. Juvia insisted on calling Silver Silver-sama, no matter how many times he told her that he hated that name because it reminded him of Franmalth.

"Should I start calling her Mom?", Gray teased his father as they walked home on a night when Juvia had been particularly aggressive in her attentions.

"Don't ever joke about that.", Silver snapped angrily.

Gray looked at his father surprised by the anger. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it."

"You've been alone for 17 years, you've never once been with anyone? I don't think Mom would have wanted you to be lonely.", Gray said carefully.

"I would never disrespect your mother's memory like that.", Silver said with a sadness that Gray had never heard him express before, " Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful that I'm getting to spend this time with you, but I miss her too. You have no idea how hard it's been for me to be away from her this long. To never know when or even if I'm ever going to see her again. And if I do, will she even forgive me for all the things I've done?". He looked at Gray and quietly muttered, "For all the things I didn't do."

"I'm so sorry, I never thought-"

"It's fine.", Silver interrupted abruptly. He didn't want to talk about it anymore, "I'd just prefer it if Juvia would look at Lyon instead of me. The only reason she seems to be interested in me is because I resemble you."

"You know, I've often wondered what would happen if Lyon pretended to no longer be interested in her at all."

Silver attempted to smile. "I suppose at this point anything's worth a try. You know I bet he would love to help with this family project of ours. We should get him to come visit."

"You guys are really close now aren't you?", Gray asked.

"I guess. Does it bother you?", Silver asked with curiosity. He'd never given much thought to how Gray would feel about his relationship with Lyon.

"Not really. He's been alone for a long time. Now that I think about it, I don't think I ever even heard him talk about his parents. He used to annoy the crap out of me, but once you get to know him he's not actually that bad, just very arrogant."

Silver laughed as he thought about Lyon, "That he is, but he does have the skills to back it up."

"What was it like?", Gray suddenly asked.

Silver looked at him puzzled not sure what they were currently talking about.

"Tartaros. You never talk about it."

Silver immediately tensed up. "Gray, I was forced to be in a dark guild for 17 years. I don't like to talk about it, I don't even like to think about it. I told you all I wanted to tell you when we were at Lamia. "

He looked at his son's disappointed expression and expanded a bit. "You have never been in a dark guild. You have no idea what it's like. Tartaros was exactly that. It was Hell, a place to pay for your sins. Except in my case it was the place where I was sent to sin. I was ordered to do things that would give you nightmares, things that I am not proud of but was powerless to stop. I killed anyone or anything they ordered, anything they considered a threat or a means to further their plans. That's all you need to know. It's gone now, and it will never return. Once I find and destroy E.N.D it will hopefully disappear into the annals of history and eventually be forgotten."

"Did you ever see Zeref?", Gray asked thinking about Natsu.

"Zeref? Why would I? Zeref had nothing to do with Tartaros. I mean, yes, he was responsible for creating the demons that comprised it but they formed the guild themselves. Mard Geer found the Book of E.N.D at some point and used it to unite the Etherious. Their goal was to rid the world of magic and collect as much curse power as possible so they could revive E.N.D, the so called Master of the Tartaros Guild. Then they would return to Zeref and fulfill their mission to kill him."

"We think that Zeref has the book of E.N.D."

"What are you talking about? Zeref hasn't been seen in hundreds of years."

"That's not true. Natsu has seen him."

"What are you saying?"

"He's seen him twice. Once during the S-Class Trials when we were attacked by Grimoire Heart and again at Tartaros. Zeref told him that he was looking for the Book of E.N.D."

"You're just telling me this now?"

"Why are you so concerned? I thought you said E.N.D could kill Zeref."

"He can but if Zeref has his book he can also control him. It could be like Deliora all over again. What does he want with Natsu?"

"Natsu doesn't know. He says Zeref acts like he knows him but he's never tried to hurt him outright. One of the reasons he was going on this trip was to try to find him."

"Stop! Just how stupid are the two of you? You let your mate, who is pregnant with a powerful magical creature that is part god, go off to look for the most powerful black wizard of our time?! Do you even know what Zeref could be capable of with Kai and E.N.D under his control? It never occurred to either of you to tell someone about this? Start from the beginning and tell me everything.", Silver growled.

"You're overreacting, Natsu is strong, he'll be fine. Zeref has never tried to hurt him, not even when Natsu has attacked him.", Gray said trying to convince himself of his words.

"This is Zeref we are talking about Gray, I can guarantee you that no matter how powerful Natsu might be if Zeref decides to attack him Natsu is going to be way out of his league. Now, start from the beginning"

So Gray did, he told him everything Natsu had told him about his dreams, his memories and his encounters with Zeref.

Silver stared at his son, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He took a deep breath and counted to ten in his mind. "Did it ever occur to either of you two idiots that Zeref could be using the dreams to lure Natsu to him? You said Zeref was at Tartaros, it's very possible he already knows about Kai and how powerful he is. He would definitely want that power for himself."

"We need to go after Natsu and find him before Zeref does.", Silver said starting to pack.

"No.", Gray said shakily.

"What do you mean no? Hurry up, get a bag together, there's no time to waste."

"Maybe you're right. Maybe Zeref is trying to lure Natsu to him but I'm not going after him. I'm terrified right now but I have faith in Natsu, he's strong and he can take care of himself. His original reason for going on this trip was to get stronger and to prove to himself that he could still stand on his own even after everything that Tiamat did to him, I am not going to take that away from him. You can go if you want to but I will wait for him to return on his own terms. Maybe that's the way I'm meant to show him my love, not by running to his rescue but by showing him that I know he can handle himself without me. If he needs help, Happy will come and get us." , Gray said. He wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing but it felt right. His body started to shake and his father hugged him tightly.

"I really hope you know what you're doing.", Silver said as he rubbed his son's back. After a few minutes he felt the shaking begin to subside. He thought this was a very reckless way to handle things but he could also see that Gray was not going to change his mind.

"Fine, have it your way, we won't go after him but we are going to talk to Erza and Laxus about all of this tomorrow and then we're going to Lamia to get Lyon. As soon as we get back we're upping the training sessions and maybe training with some other guild members. If Zeref has the Book of E.N.D in his possession we need to figure out what he's up to before it's too late."

A/N Sorry for the long wait, I was a little stuck on parts of this and I had an anime convention to prepare cosplays for :).Things are going to begin moving along in the next few chapters.


	7. Body, Mind and Spirit

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

Chapter 7: Body, Mind and Spirit

Gray's breath left him with an explosive huff and condensed into a small cloud of fog in the chill morning air. He had no time to gasp as he quickly fell back and tucked himself into a roll to create some space between him and his attacker. The Ice Ape's huge foot came down with a thud, leaving an imprint in the soft dew-laden ground where his head had been just a moment before. The ice mage ended his roll on one knee, his left hand out flat and his right hand curled in a fist on top of it. He struggled to get enough air in his lungs to speak, while the ape quickly charged at him again.

"Ice-make Spike!" He finally managed to gasp, and his magic thrust a thick spear of ice out of the ground in front of him, the wicked point slanted toward the ape. There was no way it could turn or slow itself in time, and with a loud crash, the ice creature impaled itself on the spike, then shattered into shards of ice.

Gray knew he needed to follow up quickly in order to shift from the defensive. He launched himself up from his kneeling crouch, sprinted up the slanted spear of ice in a sure-footed way only an ice mage could manage, and sprang into the air with a giant leap.

"Ice-make Hammer!" He roared at the apex of his leap, and a huge hammer of ice formed in his hands which he swung with all his might toward his opponent, Lyon Vastia.

Lyon felt like he had plenty of time to dodge such a simple and direct attack, and as he danced backward, he started to say something demeaning to Gray about being so slow and obvious, but as he looked up at the swiftly descending mage and hammer, he saw the fierce determination on Gray's face, felt that perhaps discretion was a wiser approach, and continued moving back even though he felt he was already well out of range of the falling weapon.

The hammer hit the ground with a blow far larger than Lyon expected, and his face contorted in a weird mixture of an admiring grin at Gray's cunning, and a frown of dismay at his own predicament as his back foot fell into a crack that had raced through the frostbitten ground from the impact site of the hammer directly toward him. Off balance, it was his turn to scramble back and focus on defense as he saw Gray continue his advance and cry, "Ice-make Lance!"

Lyon saw a dozen curling arrows of ice headed toward him, and he grimaced as he realized that he was in trouble due to his current stance, almost a crouch, and propping himself up with one hand. Fortunately, he had spent many years practicing a form of ice make magic that, while he now had no misconception about being stronger, was able to be performed with the single free hand he had at the moment.

"Ice-make Eagles!" he cried as he thrust his fist out and straightened his fingers. Ice burst forth from his hand and formed into eagles. They were smaller than he was normally capable of, but they were more than adequate for his purpose. Each eagle dove unerringly toward one of the lances approaching him, and as each pair of creations, eagle and lance, met and burst into sprays of ice, he had the moment he needed to regain his feet and brace to meet the quickly approaching Gray.

The two men circled each other, their fists and feet moving in a blur of strikes. Gray stepped in close and thrust a knee up toward Lyon's gut, but Lyon quickly pivoted and and snapped his foot out in a side kick twice. The first blow knocking Gray's upraised knee and forcing him to turn, the second blow landed on Gray's exposed side, knocking him partially down and forcing him to thrust both of his hands out into the grass to keep from face-planting.

Gray was not without his own tricks however, and as he crouched, his face near the grass glistening with dew, he spoke his next spell quickly, then clenched his hands and lifted them with a mighty heave, "Ice make net!"

Lyon heard this, and for a moment, had no clue what Gray was up to. Unfortunately for him, that moment was his last chance as he saw the dew around his feet crystallize into strong chains woven into a net. As Gray rose with a roar and lifted his arms, the net caught Lyon's feet and yanked them out from under him, causing him to land on his back with a thud that blasted his own breath out of his lungs.

"Time!" came a shout from off to the side. Silver stood there with a smile, having enjoyed watching the training match while keeping an eye on the timer lacrima which had just started flashing red.

"That was pretty good. You are both quite imaginative with your maker magic, and flexible with your fighting styles, but I think you still have plenty of room to improve. I saw several times each of you left yourselves wide open and a more skilled fighter could have taken you out.

"Like you, old man?" Gray growled, and Lyon let out a derisive harrumph..

"Yeah, like me. Don't kid yourselves boys. You might know how to handle yourselves in a scrap, but normal magic and fighting skills aren't going to cut it if you are up against a slayer, dragon, god, or devil. You have to be willing to push yourself past what you thought was possible, and use every tool and trick available if you want to be able to hold out against that kind of power."

"Please! I've fought Natsu plenty of times and I'm more than his equal" Gray stated fiercely.

"And I've sparred against Sherria and held my own without a problem" Lyon said.

"Yeah, yeah. You are both talking about sparring matches! You don't get it", Silver answered. "A slayer has so much power available to them, they have to be careful to hold it in check when they aren't fighting an enemy. And in the case of a devil slayer like me, you also have to constantly keep in mind the fact that the person you are fighting is *not* an enemy. Otherwise, things could go bad quick", Silver said with a frown.

"Okay, I think we need some proof here, Silver." Lyon said. "Since you think you are so mighty and we aren't on your level, how about we have a little two-on-one match. And don't go thinking you have to 'hold back' for our sakes. We can take a hit without a problem." Lyon looked over at Gray, who nodded in agreement.

"Well… if that is the way you want it, sure" Silver said, a devilish grin playing at his mouth.

Gray walked over and grabbed the timer lacrima, fiddling with it. "One minute, or until either side is knocked flat on the ground" he said. He and Lyon walked away from Silver, and while their backs were turned, Gray whispered, "I'll go dynamic, you go static. We'll try to throw him off balance." Lyon nodded, and almost as if they had rehearsed it, both men spun to face Silver as they whipped off their shirts and stood back to back facing Silver in their fighting stances. "Let's go!"

Silver stood casually in front of the two, seeming to be completely relaxed, but they saw black lines and whorles tracing over his skin as his features sharpened and darkened.

The three men stood motionless for a moment, then Gray and Lyon simultaneously launched their attacks. They put their hands into ice make motions, and shouted, "Ice make…"

"Diamond Cage", finished Lyon. His thoughts were to trap Silver in the small enclosed shell of unmeltable ice, limiting his freedom of movement, and making it easier for Gray to land his attack.

"Serpent", finished Gray as he raised his hands high. The snake materialized from his hands and launched itself toward Silver, mouth open wide.

Silver calmly watched as the cage appeared around him, and the snake swam through the air toward him. Suddenly, he burst into motion, faster than Gray and Lyon could ever have imagined. His hands thrust up, grabbing the snake right behind its head and halting it, inches from his face. With a casual flick of his wrists, he snapped the snake's back then inhaled and shouted, "Ice Devil's Rage!"

Lyon awoke with a groan. He struggled to remember where he was and what was happening, but he knew from the pain echoing from every pore of his skin that he must be in big trouble. He rolled over and started to stagger to his feet, looking around and trying to see through the thick haze of dust to locate any enemies. His eyes focused on a body on the ground next to him. It was smoking and covered in a fine web of scratches and scrapes. It was shirtless as was he, and as his eyes took in the Fairy Tail mark on the chest, his jaw dropped as his memory finally unfogged and he realized what had just happened. His gaze followed a swath of destruction that ended where he and Gray were, and went on for longer than he would have believed possible, at least 100 meters. At the other end of the trail, he saw the diamond cage he had previously thought unbreakable and unmeltable. There was a hole blasted in it, and Silver sat at the foot of it, calmly munching on a piece of one of the bars, as if it were a pocky stick.

He grinned at Lyon and said, "Not bad for an old man, huh?"

Lyon for once was gracious enough to accept defeat quietly, He made his way over to Silver and sat down next to him as they both waited for Gray to come to. "How on Earthland did you move so fast?"

"I told you, slayers have a lot of power at their disposal. I wonder how hard it must be for Natsu when he fights Gray."

"Speaking of the wife, where the hell is he? I've been here for a week and I haven't seen him once and Gray looks gloomier than usual. Did they have a fight or something?", Lyon asked with concern.

Silver sighed, "Yes and no. Natsu left on a training journey about a month ago but they did have a fight right before he left. I'm not sure when he's coming back. He promised Gray he was going to write and since a letter has yet to arrive I think Gray is worried that something went wrong or that Natsu is mad. This house that we're building is sort of a way for Gray to show Natsu how he feels."

"So, I'm working slave labor so my brother can get laid?", Lyon asked somewhat annoyed.

"No, I thought you would enjoy participating in a family project, not to mention you're getting good training in. When did Gray learn to use Dynamic Ice-Make?"

"Ah, you noticed that? We've been doing training on our own at night. I suggested it when I got tired of watching him mope over that picture in his room. I figured Ur would have taught him eventually and he sleeps better when he's tired."

"Are you two done yapping about me behind my back?", Gray grumbled. He didn't like them talking about him. "Lyon, if you want to know something about me, ask me, not my father."

"Yeah, well I'm pretty sure you're sorry ass wouldn't answer.", Lyon pointed out, "You ready for lunch? I believe it's your turn to pay today."

Gray stood up and dusted himself off after giving his injuries a once over. He felt like he had been rammed by a magic vehicle. He frowned at his father. "You held back, didn't you?"

"You're still alive, aren't you?", Silver replied a little smugly.

"So you're saying that Natsu is capable of attacks like that?', Gray asked, wondering how long Natsu had been keeping that from him. It was a little demoralizing to know that Natsu held back so much during their brawls. He'd always thought they matched up more evenly.

"If he isn't yet, he soon will be. I've been a slayer longer than he has but he does have his second origin. I'm not really sure what his current level is but based on what I saw on Tartaros it's pretty high.", Silver shrugged, "I'd love to fight him someday and find out for sure ."

"I'd rather you didn't but I'm sure he would love it."

Silver chuckled knowing Natsu would indeed love nothing more than to fight him to see who was better. He couldn't resist a challenge. Silver felt the need to reassure his son as he saw his expression turn gloomy yet again. "The house is coming along great, I'm sure we'll be done before he gets back."

Gray nodded as they made their way back to the house from the nearby field they had been using to spar. They began to put away the tools they had used that morning. All three of them were neat freaks and liked to leave the construction site ready for the next day. Once they were satisfied they began to walk back towards the guild.

"I meant to ask, do you know if Kai is going to be born as an infant or as he was on Tartaros?", Silver asked.

"Porlyusica thinks he will probably come out like he did before . She says it's because he is more dragon than human and it would be impossible for him to maintain his baby dragon body as a human infant.", Gray answered.

"On a scale of 1-10 how much do you think he still hates me?", Silver asked with trepidation remembering how much he had hurt his grandson.

"I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see.", Gray said, "but I like to think he'll come around."

They had reached the guild and entered heading straight for the counter to order their food. Mira smiled at them already expecting them. "What will it be today?"

They put in their order and Silver went off to talk to Erza. After they had found out about Natsu and Zeref they had sent word out to all the other guilds to let them know to contact them if Natsu was sighted but no one had seen him yet.

Mira set about getting their food ready. She stopped and returned taking an envelope out of her apron. "Gray, I almost forgot. This came in for you this morning. The postman had a hell of a time getting it here.", she chuckled as she showed him the chicken scrawl that was on the envelope. "Good luck reading it!"

Natsu's horrible penmanship was infamous in the guild, he had originally been taught by Igneel but Erza, whose penmanship was only marginally better, took it upon herself to give him remedial lessons. Mira handed the envelope to Gray who took it and walked with it in his hand as they sat at their table. Gray stared at the envelope in his hands.

"Are you going to open the damn thing or not?", Lyon asked. He had no idea why he was so aggravated but watching Gray's face go from happiness to fear was beginning to drive him crazy. "Here, I'll open it for you."

Lyon tried to take the letter from his brother only to be rewarded with a slap across his wrist as Gray snapped, "Don't touch it!"

"Ok, ok. You don't have to bite my head off.", Lyon replied.

Mira came to the table with their food and Gray stood up. "Mira can you pack my food to go and put everything on my tab?"

"Sure, I'll be right back.", Mira took Gray's food to the kitchen and packed it in a container. She gave it to him and he quickly left the guild.

"Where did Gray go off to?", Silver asked. He had finished talking to Erza and noticed his son was nowhere in sight.

"He didn't say. He got a letter from Natsu and took off.", Lyon shrugged feigning disinterest. He was starting to worry about Gray. "I don't get what is going on with them."

"It's complicated but I don't think it's as bad as Gray is making it out to be.", Silver said.

"Anyway, enough about him. I want to talk to you about your magic. I want you to teach it to me.", Lyon said.

"You don't need an excuse to stay with us.", Silver smiled.

"Don't flatter yourself, geezer. I feel I've gone about as far as I can with Ice-Make magic but adding your raw power to it, that could be amazing."

"It's not as simple as that. Learning Ice Devil Slayer magic is not something that can be entered into lightly. You really want to know what happened between Natsu and Gray?", Silver asked and when Lyon nodded added, "Gray wanted to learn Devil Slayer magic and when Natsu found out what was involved he freaked. He gave him somewhat of an ultimatum, either Devil Slaying magic or him."

"Natsu said that? Why? He's all about becoming as powerful as possible.", Lyon said confused and curious about what might have scared the almighty Salamander. No wonder his poor brother was acting so out of sorts. "What the hell is involved?"

"That's it exactly." Silver began telling Lyon what he would have to do if he wanted to learn his magic. Lyon looked shocked but heard him out as they ate their lunch. They continued discussing it throughout the afternoon.

o-o

Gray headed to Natsu's house. It had been a few days since he had last checked on it. He wanted to be alone when he read Natsu's letter and he knew no one would look for him there. He had been waiting so long for the damn thing to arrive that now that it was finally here he was terrified of what it would say.

He used his ice-make magic to mold a key and let himself in to his mate's house. He closed the door behind him and made his way to the dining room table. He put his food down and looked for utensils as well as a glass of water. He forced himself to eat first never taking his eyes off of the envelope. It was postmarked two weeks ago from a town he was not familiar with. He'd have to look it up on a map later. He opened the envelope carefully wanting to preserve the letter as best he could.

He removed the piece of paper and opened it. He felt warmth seep into his heart and he snorted as he saw the familiar barely legible writing of his lover.

 _Hey Snowflake,_

 _Sorry it's taken me so long to write but I haven't been in a town in a while. Forget whatever I said about wanting to travel on my own. It is boring as hell with only Happy for company. I think going on so many team jobs has ruined me. I find myself having pretend arguments with you in my head to pass the time but that only makes me miss you more. I miss everyone else too. I even miss Erza's attempts at getting us to get along and I find if I try really hard I can hear Lucy complaining about her rent._

 _I've been looking for Zeref but I haven't found any clues yet as to where he might be. Happy and I went to Tenrou Island to see if he had returned but he hadn't. We saw Mavis there though. It turns out she knew him once but she claims she doesn't know where he is now. I don't really believe her but with no other ideas we returned to Hargeon and kept going._

 _I've been training a lot too. I think I've already gotten a little stronger. Have you been training hard? I can't wait to challenge you when I get back! I got arrested the other day for destroying a mountain with my roar. It was something Igneel did once when I was young. I wanted to see if I could do it too but I got in trouble instead. It was only a small mountain so I should be out in a few days._

 _I might try to find my old cave but I haven't decided yet. I don't like being mad at Igneel, especially now that he's gone but I can't help how I feel. Maybe going back to where it all began will help. For now I've been hearing about this place called Mikage Forest, it's supposed to be full of monsters. I think Happy and I will head there next for some training._

 _I lost my medicine so I haven't been taking it for awhile. It's not so bad, I don't really feel sick anymore, I can feel something different inside of me though. I feel bad thinking about how lonely Kai must be without Igneel so I try to talk to him. I imagine I look insane talking to myself but if he can hear me it's worth it._

 _I miss you, Ice Princess. You're never far from my mind. I think about that night in Margaret Town and the following morning a lot, probably too much. I want so much for things to go back to the way they were but mostly I hope you're not mad at me and that when this separation is over we'll be together. I don't want to get my hopes up though, in case that's not what you want. Whatever you decide I'll be happy as long as it's what you truly want._

 _I should probably finish this soon. I don't want you to go crazy trying to make out my horrible writing. There's nothing really left to say except I love you and I'll try to write again soon. Happy asks that you please deliver his letter to Carla._

 _Yours,_

 _Natsu_

Gray read the letter several times trying to read between the lines but couldn't find anything amiss. He was happy to know that Natsu missed him and still loved him. He smiled at the thought that the letter was probably the longest thing Natsu had ever written and that in itself was proof of the dragon slayer's love. He chuckled at Natsu being in jail for destroying a mountain.'Destructive pyro.', he thought, amused by his mate's antics.

For the first time since Natsu left Gray felt that everything was going to be alright. He began to relax as he sat around in Natsu's house for a while comforted by his mate's belongings. He could almost pretend that Natsu would be coming through the door at any moment.

He began to get excited for the future. He looked forward to Natsu's reaction when he saw the new house that his family had built for him and Kai. His father had talked him into having a large downstairs Master Suite, claiming that it was practical considering how often they were injured, adding that they would also want privacy from Kai. Kai's bedroom was on the second floor and there were two additional bedrooms there to accommodate guests and in case they decided to adopt any additional children in the future. Gray hoped they did, he wanted Kai to have the family that neither he nor Natsu had growing up. He left and headed back to the guild hall clutching the letter in his hand so that he would not lose it and sporting a real smile for the first time since Natsu had left.

He entered the guild and looked for his father and found him at the bar with Cana, Gildarts and Lyon. He sat with them and ordered a beer.

"You look like you're in a good mood.", Cana smiled at him, "How's Natsu doing?"

"He was in jail for destroying a mountain.", Gray smirked.

Cana laughed, "Yep, that sounds like him!"

"Is everything ok now?", she asked him with concern.

"You know what, I think everything is!", he smiled at her and pointed at their fathers, "Will you look at those two?"

"Are you kidding me? I'm loving it!", Cana exclaimed, "Gildarts has been so entertained by your old man he hasn't been obsessing about me as much."

Both mages laughed as they drank. Erza joined them and asked Gray about the postmark on the envelope. He showed it to her and told her of Natsu's plans to head to Mikage Forest. She went off in search of a map.

Gray shifted his attention to Lyon and noticed that he looked preoccupied. He moved over to the empty stool next to his brother. "What's up? Did Juvia ignore your advances again?"

Lyon startled and looked at him blankly for a moment. "What?"

"Nevermind. What's going on?", Gray asked. For the last week Lyon had been trying to help him through his funk and Gray wanted to try to return the favor.

"I think I want to learn Devil Slayer Magic.", Lyon answered.

"Are you sure?", Gray said surprised by Lyon's words "Did Silver tell you what you have to do?"

Lyon nodded. "Yeah, he did. I think I want to do it anyway."

"What about Juvia?", Gray asked."What about Lamia?"

"What about her? Unless I learn transformation magic and change into you or Silver she's not interested and frankly I'm tired of getting rejected. I'm done.", Lyon said, his tone flat, "As for the guild this will only help me do a better job of representing it."

"Lyon, this is a really big step. It will change your life forever."

"I know, but unlike you I have nothing keeping me from doing it.", Lyon smiled sadly, He would never admit it out loud, but he was a little jealous of Gray. Of what he had and where his life was headed. "I'm going to go home and do some thinking, I'll see you later."

"It's nice to see you happy again.", Lyon smiled at Gray and gave him a hug before going home to the apartment they shared.

Cana ordered them another round of drinks and dragged Gray to a table. "Come on", she giggled, "Let's see how many babies you and Natsu are going to make."

Gray snorted, "We're both men Cana, we can't make babies."

"Natsu's pregnant right now.", she teased.

"Yeah, I'd rather not repeat that experience if you don't mind."

"Whatever, give me the letter.", she demanded.

"I don't want you to read it, it's private.", Gray protested as he tried to keep it away from her.

"I don't want to read it stupid, I just want an item that's important to you to help focus the reading.", she explained. She was already a little tipsy and Gray was in a good mood so he decided to humor her. He handed her the letter.

Wendy came running over to him with Carla. "Gray-san, Gray-san is it true? DId you get a letter from Natsu-san? Is he ok?"

"I did!", Gray smiled at the little girl, "He's doing just as you would expect, causing trouble everywhere he goes."

"That's Natsu for you.", Carla said good-naturedly for once.

"Oh, Carla. I have something for you. Happy wrote you a letter.", Gray grabbed the envelope from Cana and opened it. He grabbed Happy's letter and offered it to the Exceed. She took it from him eagerly, making Gray think that maybe Happy might have a chance after all.

Gray turned away and returned the envelope to the eager card mage. She opened it and took out the letter. The envelope had been touched by too many people to be useful. He waited for her to do her reading, completely unaware of the tears on Carla's face as she dropped Happy's letter and gazed upon him in horror. She saw Pantherlily up in the rafters and flew up to join him.

Wendy observed the shaken Carla fly to the rafters with Pantherlily and hoped that Carla would tell her what was wrong once she calmed down. She picked up Happy's letter from the floor to keep it safe for her Exceed and settled down to watch Cana do a reading for Gray.

Cana riffled the cards, getting attuned, and then fanned them out, thumbing through them while contemplating Gray. Eventually, she stopped on one card and drew it out of the deck, handing it to him.

"This is your 'Major Arcana'. The card chosen to represent you for this reading.", she said with a smile.

Gray looked at the card in his hand and frowned. "Damn Cana, that's harsh. The Fool?"

"No no, don't take it the wrong way." Cana continued as she gestured to the table to have Gray place the card. "The Fool normally symbolizes innocence or new beginnings."

Gray turned the card to face him and placed it where Cana had pointed.

"Um, no, don't turn… hm, too late… no, don't move it now that it's been placed, it would throw the reading off.", Cana's smile fell a bit as she watched Gray place the card, inverted, in its place.

"What's wrong with putting it this way?", Gray asked.

"Well, cards usually have two different themes, upright, and inverted. That normally only applies to the cards that are drawn during the next phase though, so don't worry too much about your Major Arcana card here.", she said as she handed Gray the remainder of the deck. "Shuffle these."

Gray took the cards and started mixing them up. "So what does the Fool mean if it is inverted? That I'm not so innocent after all?", he gave her a naughty grin, trying to lighten the mood.

Cana gave a brief chuckle and replied, "No, although we already know you are a big stripping pervert. It can mean a bunch of different things such as loss of innocence, betrayal, or being taken advantage of."

Gray finished shuffling and handed her the cards. Cana took them, closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath to focus, then she turned over the first card. "This is the physical aspect card. The Sun, inverted." She flipped a second card, placing it beside the first. "This is the mental aspect card. Hmm.. The Moon, inverted." Her eyes took in the two cards, side-by-side.

"Sun and Moon, eh? Hot and cold?", Gray said. "But inverted, so what does that mean?"

"Well, the Sun is joy and happiness, and inverted, sadness or negativity.", Cana thought for a moment. "It could also relate to the past in addition to physicality.. or maybe physical discomfort at the pregnancy? Has Natsu been taking his medicine?"

"No that's not it, he said he lost it a while back but he was feeling fine.", Gray replied.

Cana continued, pointing at the second card. "The Moon is unconscious, illusions or intuition. Inverted, it can be fear, misinterpretation, or a thought or feeling that doesn't have the right target."

She then took the third card off the top of the deck and placed it alongside the other two. It had a picture of a leering monster on it. The card was in the opposite orientation from the other three cards, but Gray could easily read the foreboding title on it.

"The Devil, huh… But if it isn't reversed, is it good or bad?" Gray asked in confusion.

Cana sighed in frustration at how this whole thing had diverged from the playful "count the babies" reading she had been intending. "Well, this is the spirit card. What is inside of you. It can mean a lot of things, some more serious like a desperate need, or more light like simple playfulness. Fortunately the cards are rarely literal."

A/N Welcome to my husband deinspanjer who was responsible for the initial fighting scenes and the tarot reading. He will hopefully be writing all fighting scenes for this story. He was also instrumental in To Kill A Dragon since he was the one who helped me with all the Forgotten Realms stuff, of which I had not a clue in the beginning.

Thank you to lovencharmed, SilverWhiteDragon, Puck100, EclipsingParadise and Mina_Dragneel for reviewing and commenting on the last chapter. I appreciate it! I love reviews they make my day :).


	8. Unexpected Encounter

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

Chapter 8: Unexpected Encounter

"Well, that's the last time I try to destroy a mountain on purpose," Natsu grumbled to his Exceed, Happy.

"I can't believe how long it took to clear up that mess!" Natsu whined. He had been stuck in that town for weeks, his body constantly sore from the physical task of clearing rubble day in and day out. About the only good thing about it had been that for the first time in a while it had distracted him from the other pain he had been feeling. The pain that had begun about two weeks after he had left Magnolia. It was like a dull ache in his soul that never seem to go away, thoughts of Gray would lessen it sometimes but whenever he thought about their mating it grew to almost unbearable proportions.

"Well, that's because you had to do it by yourself." Happy replied, "It serves you right too! You're lucky they only made you do that instead of paying damages, and don't forget they fed us."

"I guess, but we wasted almost two weeks in there and that cell smelled. I'm supposed to go home in a little over a month and I don't feel like I've gotten much stronger, not to mention we've found out absolutely nothing about Zeref."

"We could always head over to that forest you talked about, lots of monsters there to fight." Happy pointed out.

"Now you're talking!" Natsu cheered, "I wonder what kinds of monsters they have?"

Happy shrugged, they didn't really know much about the place they were headed to outside of the general direction to follow.

"Do you hear that, Kai? We are going to go beat up some monsters! I bet you'd like that, maybe we can do that when you finally come out." Natsu said as he talked to his toned belly. He had given up on trying to understand where Kai was inside his body. It was enough to know he was there. He was getting a little excited at the idea of being a parent, even though it was not something he had ever thought about until it was thrust upon him. At least he didn't have to worry about Tiamat trying to take Kai away from him anymore.

They found the road they needed to follow to get to their destination and began to walk towards Mikage Forest.

o-o

'There it is again' Kai thought to himself.

The first few weeks that he had been back inside of his father had been very lonely. He had missed Igneel with every fiber of his being although he tried to keep himself strong by reminding himself that he would see him again someday. Igneel had said so.*

Recently he had started hearing a voice, he couldn't quite make out the words but sometimes he thought he could almost make out his name. Was his father finally trying to communicate with him?

'That would be nice' he thought. There was really nothing for him to do here. The place where he had lived with Igneel was gone. It had been a product of his magic and it had disappeared with his death. Kai didn't know how to make a new one so he mostly slept a lot and felt himself heal. He never felt hunger as he was constantly absorbing small amounts of his father's magic. He had no way to tell time but even if he did, he had no idea how long he was supposed to stay in here. Would he even know when he was ready to be born? He was in the dark and the only noise he could really hear well was the rhythmic beating of his father's heartbeat. He loved that sound, it reminded him that he was not alone. He created a thought projection of his two parents and watched it for awhile before making it disappear. He really wanted to see them again.

Igneel had never taught him how to connect himself to his father's senses and Kai got the feeling that had not been an oversight. Kai thought he had figured out how to send suggestions to his father's mind so he had been trying to flood his mind with images of Zeref and their childhood in the hopes that it would make his father want to seek out his brother but he had no real way to tell whether his attempts had been successful.

He wondered about how he could connect to his father's senses and had a thought. If he could determine where those memory threads were created he might be able to latch on to the newest one and follow it back up to the source. He set about figuring out how to find his father's most recent memories amidst all those threads.

Like the time he had been searching for the memory of his mother he focused all his power on finding Natsu's most recent memory. When he released it a thread began to glow more brightly than the rest and Kai followed it eagerly.

o-o

Natsu and Happy had walked for hours before they saw any signs of human life. They finally saw a village and decided to stop there for an early dinner. They looked around and noticed that a lot of the village seemed recently squished? There was rubble laying around what looked to be the flattened remains of buildings and other structures. Curious about what they saw, they made their way to the village's one tavern and prepared to use the last of their jewels to eat before they headed into the forest.

Natsu ordered a drink and sat there gaging the patrons to see whether there was anyone worth challenging to a fight. He saw a lot of scared faces and noticed most of the men in the tavern were wrapped up in bandages. He wondered what was going on. When the bartender came back he ordered their food.

Natsu heard a voice say, "That mark on your arm, are you from a magic guild?"

Natsu turned around to see who was talking to him. He saw a man not much older than him pointing at his arm.

"Yeah, I'm in a guild. I'm from Fairy Tail." he answered. He expected the man to ask him questions about guild life or magic or any of the other questions they were all used to answering by now. He was surprised when the man said, "I would like to hire you."

"Hire me? What for?"

"You must have seen the buildings outside." the man said, "I can pay you if that's what you're worried about." He showed him a large bag full of jewels.

Natsu laughed, money had never been a big motivator for him. It was a necessity, but he was perfectly willing to do jobs for free if it was the right thing to do. Until he had met Lucy he had never even given it much thought. As long as he had enough to eat he was usually happy.

"I did see the buildings, what did that?" Natsu asked.

"A large monster has been coming out of the forest at night. It has destroyed our buildings and our crops but has not killed anyone. However, if we can't get rid of it soon we will have to abandon this village and find a new place to live. All of our men have already tried to stop him. They have nothing but bandages to show for their efforts but you have magic, maybe you can succeed where they failed."

How big is it? Did it have any weaknesses? Why did it only come at night? Why was it destroying their crops? Why did it not go on a rampage and destroy all the buildings at once and why did it keep itself from killing? These were the questions Natsu should probably have been asking himself or the man but Natsu had been stuck in a cell for two weeks doing menial labor and he was too excited about the prospect of a fight to really give the issue much thought. Besides he had never been the planner of their team. So with only the vaguest of descriptions as to its appearance and abilities he decided to accept the job. He even offered to do it for free as he had been planning to fight monsters in the forest anyway, but the man was strangely insistent that he accept payment. After he and Happy finished their meal they went outside to wait for the monster to make its appearance.

Hours had gone by and Natsu had finally dozed off only to be startled awake by screams. He quickly got up and ran towards the noise. He stopped in his tracks and gazed up at the monster he had agreed to fight. It looked like a toad, a dark gray coloring on the top half, and a brilliant red belly, with whorles and patterns that looked almost like flames curling up around its throat. This wouldn't normally be awe-inspiring, but the thing was at least 30 feet (10 meters) tall and enormously fat. The scariest thing about it though was its eyes. They were red and glazed over as it looked at the set of buildings it was trying to destroy with single minded purpose.

A smile lit up Natsu's features as he realized this was going to be a challenge. "Hell yeah, I'm all fired up!"

He quickly made his way closer to the monster ignoring Happy's cries that he should observe it a little before attacking it and instantly went after it with his Fire Dragon Roar.

Happy yelled after him, "Natsu, I have a bad feeling about this!"

The toad turned to face Natsu as the flames raced toward it, but the monster did not otherwise react, and when the flames struck its glistening red skin, they were absorbed into it without seeming to cause the creature the slightest discomfort. The toad crouched, then launched itself high in the air, landing on a nearby shed and squashing it flat with a splintering crash.

Natsu ran toward the beast and leapt into the air, fire blasting from his feet as he hauled back his fist and shouted, "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" The fire mage flew toward the creature, but faster than he could even follow, the toad's mouth opened, and a long bulbous tongue stretched out, snatching Natsu from the air and drawing him into its mouth.

"Natsu!" Happy screamed. "Let him go you big slimy monster! He isn't a fly!" Happy watched as two faint explosions of fire went off inside the toad's throat, but it did not appear to be fazed in the slightest, and it leapt onto yet another house, knocking it down like kindling. Happy flew toward the toad, but realized that there was no way he could even scratch the beast and he probably looked much more like a fly than Natsu did.

The creature opened its mouth again and the tongue darted out, racing toward Happy at a speed he couldn't hope to dodge, but as the tongue ascended, it seemed to be slowing down and dropping below its target. Happy saw the reason for this. Natsu clung to the tip of the tongue, looking disgusted as he was covered in drool. The tongue lost the last of its momentum, and fell to the ground. The toad started to pull it back into its mouth, but Natsu grabbed a fence post as he was dragged past it and clung on for dear life. The tongue stretched, and finally separated from Natsu with a pop and disappeared inside the toad's mouth.

This was not going at all like Natsu had anticipated. Of all the rotten luck! Why the hell did the stupid monster have to be immune to fire. Still that had never stopped him before. He stood, trying to wipe some of the toad slime off of his face, and prepared his next attack but jerked around in surprise when he scented someone he had not seen since they had fought the dragons at The Dragon King Festival.

"Cobra?" Natsu asked surprised. What was he doing here?

A moment later the Poison Dragon Slayer had joined him. "Gods, Dragneel you're so damn loud I could hear you from my camp. What are you doing here?"

"At the moment I'm trying to complete a job. I need to take out this monster but he seems to be immune to fire."

Cobra snorted, "So what you're saying is you're useless and I'm going to have to bail you out. Fine, I'll help you, but you're going to owe me and I intend to collect quickly."

"Just shut up and fight. This village is in trouble.", Natsu snapped.

Cobra faced the toad as it slowly turned and selected the next building it intended to flatten. It leapt into the air, but as it passed over the two of them, they both jumped up to intercept it with shouts:

"Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!"

"Poison Dragon's Spiral Jaw!"

The two dragon slayers struck the toad in its belly, knocking it off course. It landed at the edge of the forest, on its back, and it looked almost comical as it squirmed with its legs thrashing in the air until it finally righted itself. Glaring about until its red glazed eyes finally found the two of them.

Natsu recognized that look, and he scrambled for the nearest cover as he shouted, "Cobra, watch out for its tongue! It will try to…" His shout trailed off into a dismayed whisper, "eat you," as he watched the toad's tongue dart out and snatch Cobra into its belly before he could move.

Natsu tried to formulate a plan on how to extract Cobra from the belly of the beast. He dodged back and forth, launching blasts of fire at it, but the flames seemed completely unnoticeable to it as it turned and prepared to jump onto another house.

Suddenly, there was a "thoomp!" and the creature's throat bulged, wisps of purple smoke curling from its nostrils. The toad shuddered, hunched up, and gagged. Its mouth opened and it spat up purple tinged bile along with a furious, slime-covered dragon slayer. Natsu immediately knew that he was going to owe Cobra for this. Big time.

The monsters eyes lost the red glaze that had been present throughout the fight and Cobra muttered something under his breath low enough that even Natsu's ears couldn't detect it,

"What was that?", Natsu asked him.

"Don't worry about it, you'll find out soon enough. Collect your reward and let's go. I'll expect half of course."

"Sure" Natsu shrugged, "You can have all of it if you want."

"Nah, half is fine."

Natsu walked off to collect his reward and say goodbye to the man that had hired him. He joined Cobra and they began to walk into the forest.

"So, are you on the run?" Natsu asked his fellow dragon slayer.

"Can you hold off the questions until we find somewhere we can wash this crap off of us?" Cobra said, "There's a river nearby, we'll head there first."

Natsu looked at Cobra and thought about how ridiculous he looked. He tried desperately not to laugh but he wasn't having much luck.

"You know I can hear your thoughts, right? You don't look or smell much better yourself , by the way." Cobra said dryly. "The river's this way."

Once they had finished washing off the toad's bodily fluids, Cobra remarked, " We will never speak of this ever again, that goes for you too, furball!" Cobra glared at Happy who after a few snickers readily agreed.

"Now, to answer your previous question I'm sort of on the run, I'm with Crime Sorciere now."

"You're with Jellal? That's surprising. I thought you hated the guy."

"We've come to an understanding, our real enemy is Zeref, not each other."

"Zeref?" Natsu said excitedly, "Do you know where he is? I've been looking for him for weeks."

"No, we don't but we won't stop until we find him. We're following a lead right now,"

They had been walking for about a quarter of a mile when Natsu began to smell the familiar scents of the other members of Crime Sorciere.

"So the rest of Oración Seis joined Jellal too? That must have been one hell of a recruiting pitch."

Cobra grinned, "You could say it was painful, but that's all water under the bridge. You might want to be quieter, they're asleep. I was on guard duty when I heard you. You can go rest in my tent, we'll talk in the morning."

Natsu grunted and he and Happy crawled into the tent Cobra pointed out. They both fell asleep quickly.

o-o

"DRAGNEEL….DRAGNEEL…." Cobra yelled as he tried to wake the flailing dragon slayer, "NATSU!".

Natsu shot up breathing quickly. He looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings and became uneasy but as he saw Cobra and Happy staring at him he began to calm down. He was in Cobra's tent somewhere in Mikage Forest.

Cobra was looking at him intently and all of a sudden he crawled out of the tent and hurried away. Natsu had caught a strange expression on his face. Was that guilt? Why would Cobra feel guilty? He decided not to worry about it and focused on working his way back from his nightmare. That had been the worst one he'd had in a while. Sleeping with Gray helped to keep them away but now that they were apart they had started creeping up on him again. He worked on some of the breathing exercises Porlyusica had taught him to calm his mind and slowly he felt the nightmare ease back to whatever part of his mind it came from. He sighed and made his way outside.

Jellal was sitting against a tree and as he looked up at the Fire Dragon Slayer, he did not seem surprised by his presence.

"Good Morning, I won't ask if you slept well."

"Yeah, that happens sometimes. What are you guys doing here anyway?", Natsu asked. This place was remote even by Crime Sorciere standards.

"We've been following a lead on a cult that's trying to summon Zeref. Their headquarters are around here somewhere. We haven't exactly found them yet. They seem to be able to control the monsters in this forest and have been using them to destroy the surrounding villages. To what purpose we don't yet know. Cobra mentioned he found you defending one of the villages last night. Is that why are you're here as well?" Jellal answered.

"No" Natsu replied with an easy smile, "I was coming here to train. I'd heard there were some tough monsters in this forest and if that one Cobra and I fought last night is any indication I don't think I'll be disappointed."

"Cobra mentioned you were looking for Zeref as well. Why?"

"That's my business, do you know anything that can help me find him?"

"Not exactly, but if this cult manages to summon him maybe we can both get our questions answered. We could use your help, Natsu."

"Pinkie's staying. He owes me one and I'm calling it in. We need all the help we can get with these bozos." Cobra said as he returned from wherever he went. Natsu searched his expression but the Poison Dragon Slayer gave nothing away. "Besides I doubt he can resist the lure of being able to train with us."

Natsu thought about it for a bit and realized Cobra was right. There was no way he would walk away from the chance to train with Jellal, Cobra and the rest of Crime Sorciere.

He could hear Cobra snickering as Natsu said, "I guess I could stay for awhile."

A/N *Kai is referring to events that happened in the Dragon Drabble **Choose To Live**.

Figured it was time we knew what Natsu has been up to. I bet you can all guess where this is all leading up to :). I hope you liked the fight scene, I though it was funny. As always let me know what you think , I like to hear from you! Thank you to SilverWhiteDragon and Puck100 for reviewing last time.


	9. Preparations

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

Chapter 9: Preparations

Gray lay on his bed looking at the portrait of himself, Natsu and Kai that he had commissioned Reedus as he thought about Natsu and what he might be doing at that moment. He was scheduled to return in about a month and Gray couldn't wait to see his flame-brained mate again. He was startled out of his thoughts by a sharp knock on his front door. He waited for his father to answer but then remembered he was still at the guild with Gildarts.

He got up grudgingly and opened his door to find Lyon at his doorstep.

"Hey man, where did you go off to?" Gray asked curiously as he let the silver haired wizard in to his apartment. The last time he had seen Lyon he had told Gray that he was coming back home but when he had arrived his brother had been nowhere to be found. That had been two days ago.

"I came here for a while but I couldn't focus so I decided to go for a walk to clear my head. I didn't think to leave a note since I was planning on coming right back." Lyon frowned as he remembered the long night. "Once I started walking I just kept going and next thing I knew I was in Margaret Town. Since I was already there, I figured I might as well spend some time at the guild before I headed back."

"So did you decide what you're going to do?"

"Yes, I want to do it. I'm going to become an Ice Devil Slayer like Silver. You can have the wife and the kids and I'll be the badass uncle." Lyon teased knowing how it irked Gray when he called Natsu his wife.

"You know, he's going to be back soon and he's going to kick your ass when he hears you call him that."

"I look forward to it, I can't wait to see his face when he realizes that I'm a slayer too." Lyon grinned in anticipation. "After I kick his ass I'll start calling him that all the time."

"Yeah, good luck with that." Gray eyed Lyon with amusement, knowing it would not be that easy to defeat the Fire Dragon Slayer, especially when he was angered. "So what's next?"

"I asked for a leave of absence from Lamia Scale, I think the next step is to take the writings to Levy. Silver wants to make sure we do everything correctly, he's worried about something going wrong with the summoning. He'd mentioned getting Freed's help as well for the summoning circle."

Gray nodded his understanding and started to head back to bed when he heard Lyon call out to him. Gray turned and saw that Lyon looked scared. He looked at his bed with longing but decided to join Lyon on the couch. He sat down next to him.

"What's the matter, are you not sure?"

"No, that's not it. I'm just a little nervous. Like you said, it's a big step." Lyon looked at Gray intently. "Do you regret not doing it?"

Gray shook his head. "No, I don't. I spent years thinking that what I wanted the most would forever be beyond my reach, now that I have it I'm not going to just give it up. Certainly not for more magic." He smiled at his brother. "What about you, what is it you want the most?"

"Sadly, I still want to surpass Ur. All this time and I haven't gotten a better goal."

"Well, this would probably do it, I think. Silver was able to freeze a whole village to defeat one demon, Ur was able to defeat Deliora but only at the cost of her life. I'm sure with Devil Slayer Magic you could take out a demon like him quite easily, that's what it's for after all."

Lyon nodded in agreement. He was still on edge and he was suddenly hit by a wave of nostalgia for when he and Gray had been children training under Ur. He had felt alone and scared back then too until Gray had come into their life. The prospect of what he was about to do had him scared once again even though this did not make him wish to change his decision. He wanted that comfort back. He was about to change all that he was and he needed a bridge to who he once was, before it was gone forever. "Can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure, what do you need?" Gray looked at Lyon with interest. He could see the fear in the man's eyes and it made him curse Lyon's need to prove himself stronger than anyone else. Still, he had adopted Lyon as a brother of sorts and he wanted to help him in any way he could.

"Can you be there with me when I do it?"

Gray was taken aback by the request. He had not expected the loneliness that he heard in Lyon's voice and it made him sad. It also made him a little mad at Juvia for being so caught up in her unhealthy obsession with him and his father that she was unable to really see Lyon. Then again, he knew better than anyone from his own experiences with the water mage that you could not force love.

He had not really been planning on being a part of any of this, but looking at how scared his brother was he could not find it in his heart to say no. He smiled at Lyon reassuringly and patted him on the shoulder, "I'll be with you every step of the way."

""It's not like I need you to be there or anything, but thanks." Lyon said looking a little guilty for asking this of Gray but he also sounded more confident.

Gray chuckled, amused by his brother's discomfort with showing weakness of any kind. "No problem, that's what family does." He searched the other's features carefully wanting to make sure that his brother was okay before getting up from the couch.

"I'm going to bed now, I had a long day. Your room is ready as usual." Gray smirked pointing at the couch Lyon was already sitting on.

"Ok, I'll just wait up for Silver."

"Suit yourself, good night." Gray made his way back into his bedroom and closed the door behind him. He looked at the portrait one last time, he liked Natsu to be the last thing he saw before he went to sleep. He awoke to an empty apartment and he made his way to the kitchen to prepare the cup of coffee that turned him into a civilized person in the morning. He saw a note from his father next to the percolator telling him that he and Lyon had already left for the guild. Gray made himself some breakfast and got himself ready. Today was going to be an interesting day.

When Gray arrived at the guild he found Silver and Lyon sitting at a table with Levy and Freed. They were all poring over some manuscripts that were laid out on every available surface of the long table. Levy was mumbling to herself about the finer points of the language she was trying to translate. Every once in a while she would ask Romeo to get a tome for her from the guild library to corroborate her translation.

Freed was analyzing the rune circle that they would have to create in order to bind the devil they were summoning. He couldn't say that he agreed with what Lyon was going to do but he was fascinated by the complex intricacies of the runes involved. He had never seen anything like it. There were so many rules and one mistake could spell disaster for everyone.

Jobs had finally started coming in and the request board once again was covered in requests for mages. Now that they could all go out on jobs again everyone's morale had begun to rise and a sense of normalcy was slowly seeping back into the guild. Erza had taken the opportunity to leave on a job with Lucy two days earlier and they were all glad. Not only would she not approve of their current course of action but she had needed a break from the responsibilities of being Master and Laxus had finally had to stay and be in charge for awhile. He was frankly interested in what was going to happen. He wasn't familiar with Devil Slaying magic and thought this process was interesting, much more so that having a lacrima implanted inside your body. This also meant that Freed was available to help them with his considerable knowledge, which was rather serendipitous.

Laxus had forbidden that they attempt the summoning inside the guild pointing out that they had just finished rebuilding it so an area had been set aside behind the guild. They would be using a space that the mages often used to train or spar. Considering that it was used regularly by Erza, Gray and all of the dragon slayers they felt comfortable that it would be able to withstand whatever powerful magic was released during the summoning.

"Lyon" Freed called out to the Lamia Scale mage. He waited until the man approached him and handed him a light pen. "I want you to start practicing drawing this circle."

Lyon looked at the light pen nervously not ready yet to begin this step. He looked at the complicated circle nervously. It consisted of two interlocking what had been explained to him one side would contain a large number of protective runes meant to keep him safe from attack. This was where Lyon would be standing when he chanted the incantation that would summon the devil. The other would be full of runes meant to bind the Ice Devil while their contract was negotiated. The area in the middle were both circles intersected would contain the runes that described the rules of the summoning including the type of creature being summoned, the plane of existence it was being summoned from as well as a large number of rules that made Freed eerily giddy with excitement. Lyon had never met anyone who enjoyed rules as much as the green haired rune mage. This area would also contain a wall of Lyon's ice that would serve as a portal through which the devil would travel into their plane of existence.

Levy noticed his trepidation and tried to make him feel at ease. "Don't worry, Lyon. In order for the circle to work it has to be drawn in a special chalk and you have to recite the summoning spell. Freed just wants you to practice."

"She's right. These are very complex runes. I'm going to go over them with you and explain what they mean. Every one of them is important, they represent the conditions of the summoning. For example, you see this one here?"

Lyon looked at the rune that Freed was pointing at and nodded.

"That's the one that keeps the devil from killing you. You might want to get that one right."

Lyon looked at Freed horrified and the rune mage laughed at him. He could also hear the laughs behind him that come from Evergreen, Bickslow and Laxus and was decidedly unamused. "Relax, I jest. The one that means that is actually over there." He pointed to the rune that was at the very center of both circles. All other runes in that space seemed to expand out from it. "I do recommend you get it right, though."

Gray hid his laugh behind a cough and decided to go over to Lyon to offer some support. He slapped him on the back and said. "Don't worry, Freed's just messing with you. He's the best we have when it comes to runes. You're in good hands. I'm sure he'll check your work before you do the real one too."

Freed nodded. "Indeed I will. We're all here to make sure this is as safe as it can possibly be."

"What does the first one you showed me actually mean?" Lyon asked Freed.

Freed looked at it again and replied "That one just describes that you are summoning an ice devil."

Lyon calmed down somewhat and began to listen to Freed with interest. When Gray felt Lyon had relaxed enough he made his way over to his father who looked about as nervous as Lyon.

"What's the matter with you?" Gray asked.

"I'm just worried that something will go wrong and it will be my fault."

"What are you talking about? You've done this before haven't you?"

"Kind of? The old man did most everything for me. He had been an elder of his tribe and had been responsible for helping the young men through the rite. That's why he had all the documents on him. All I really had to do was the incantation." Silver admitted.

"I'm sure it will be fine." Gray smiled reassuringly at him. "You won't let anything happen to if something goes wrong can't you fight the devil with your magic."

"I'm not sure." Silver said honestly.

"What do you mean?"

"Meritos is bound to me by contract and he will follow it to the letter but there is nothing in our contract about fighting other devils. He is happy to go after any demon or perceived threat but I don't really know what he would do if he was up against another devil. It's never come up before."

"Well, that's just great." Gray said sarcasm oozing from every word. "Did you tell Lyon that?"

"I didn't think it would help." Silver said seriously.

"It's going to be fine Dad, it has to be." Gray said as he sat at the table and looked at all the documents on the table with interest.

Lyon practiced drawing the summoning circle until Freed was satisfied with his progress. They all took a break for lunch and then returned back to the table. Levy handed a piece of paper to Lyon and let him look through it before he gazed up at her with an confused expression. "What does this say?"

"This is the incantation that will match the circle. I had to put it together using what I could find of Infernal, which is the common language for devils. It's actually not as uncommon as you would think. Apparently devils like to be summoned so they leave tomes lying around that mortals can use to call on them. There were more than a few in our own guild library." Levy wrinkled her nose in distaste before she continued.

"A few things, most devil contracts require you to sign your soul away. Once you die, your soul is bound to the 9 Hells for eternity."

"Absolutely not. He is not doing that." Gray yelled in outrage, repeating the words Natsu had said to him months earlier. He quickly turned towards his father. "Did you do that, Dad?"

"No, I would never do that." Silver assured his son. "I told you, I want to be back together with your mother. I would never agree to something that would jeopardize that."

Even through his nerves Lyon had to smile at Gray's reaction to Levy's words. It was not that long ago that he had reacted similarly when he had first heard of the Soulbond.

"Calm down, Gray. We just need to make sure that we do *not* summon a contract devil. We will make that part of the incantation. The contract we are looking for is called Infernal Slave. We will negotiate for the service of the devil. He will be bound to do Lyon no harm and he will follow his orders for as long as he lives."

"That sounds a little too good to be true." Gray noted, "What does the devil get out of it?"

"Well they get to stay on this plane and-" Levy tried to explain when Silver interrupted.

"They're playing a long game. They will try to corrupt your soul with every decision you make. If you're not careful you will end up in the 9 Hells just as surely as if you had signed a contract." Silver said seriously.

Gray looked at this father horrified. Was this what his life was like? What about all of his acts of revenge, or the things he had done for Tartarus while under Keyes control? Did those count?

"Don't look so worried kid. I told you, I would not do anything that would jeopardize meeting up with your mother again." Silver smiled at Gray, trying to reassure him although he saw him now stare at Lyon.

Gray couldn't believe Natsu had been so right. He now knew for a fact that he wanted nothing to do with Ice Devils or their magic. It sounded more like a curse to him. How could he have even considered putting his relationship in danger for this! He had more than half a mind to talk Lyon out of it but to his dismay although Lyon looked scared once again he did not seem to be deterred.

"Lyon-" Gray called out but Lyon did not let him speak.

"I understand how you feel, Gray. It was how I felt when you were explaining the Soulbond to Natsu. I get it now and I'm sorry I tried to talk you out of it at the time. I want to do this and I would really appreciate if you were a better brother than I was back then."

Gray looked at Lyon with sorrow. He wished Lyon's life was in a better place so he did not feel the need to go through with this but he had promised that he would support him and so he would. He tried to smile but even though he failed Lyon still heard the sincerity when Gray said, "I will be with you every step of the way. It's what I promised, it's what I'll do."

Lyon hugged his brother gratefully and then quickly shoved him away. "Let's keep going."

Levy continued talking and then it was time for Lyon to practice the incantation. "Lyon, I marked the words of power that you are not to say while you practice. The incantation will not activate until those words are added so you can practice as many times as you want."

Lyon nodded his understanding and began to say the words as Levy corrected his pronunciation and brought out a metronome so he could practice the rhythm he needed to maintain. They were readu to proceed tomorrow. On his last try Lyon accidentally spoke one of the words of power and it managed to sneak its way into the first level of hell known as Avernus. That one word reached the ears of a very desperate creature who could feel the power behind the caster. He immediately began plotting.

A/N I'm not sure how long until the next update. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes with timelines and the like. Let me know what you think, as always your comments and reviews help me get inspired to continue.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed or commented on the last chapter. A shout out to Puck100. Eclipsing Paradise, SilverWhiteDragon and suitupsammy on fanfiction and Stella Formidante on AO3 for your kind words. From the bottom of my heart, I really appreciate it!


	10. Bel the Warlord

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

Chapter 10: Bel the Warlord

The sky glowed crimson on the charred and desolate wasteland that was the First Level of Hell known as Avernus. Fireballs materialized seemingly at random as the flammable gas in the air ignited and exploded coating the ground below in ash and creating fires that burned so hot as to make it unbearable for anyone unaccustomed to the infernal heat. They produced a foul smelling smoke that permeated the air making it hard to breathe due to its acrid stench. It also made it difficult to see over any great distance. Rivers of lava flowed down from the many volcanoes that dotted the landscape. Much of the land was covered in blood, viscera and bones from the countless clashes in the never ending Blood War the devils have waged against the demons from the Abyss. Unfortunately for the denizens of this particular hell Avernus serves as the entrance point for all outsiders. Huge legions of devils patrol the land, keeping an eye out for any intruders or rule breakers that might be trying to escape their just punishment. It was also home to a devil known as Bel the Warlord, perhaps the most brilliant general to ever grace Avernus. Bel had spent countless millennia protecting Avernus from enemies and had served as its appointed archdevil for the last 300 years. That had all ended when Bel had somehow managed to displease the Ruler of Hell, Asmodeus. He had been removed from his seat of power by Zariel, his predecessor, and sent to The Maggot Pit to be demoted.

The Maggot Pit was a 1,000 foot in diameter pit that was filled to the brim with maggots and ooze. It was a landmark in an otherwise unobtrusive part of Avernus. Due to its proximity to Tiamat's lair the pit was guarded by red abishai, minions created by Tiamat to be her loyal servants. These winged creatures whose appearance resembled humanoid dragons served not only as guards but torturers as well.

Bel was currently on day 900 of his time at The Pit of Maggots which meant he still had 101 days to go before his demotion was complete and he would be removed from the pit of filth. Demotion was a long unpleasant process where pain devils tortured you daily as they stripped away your skin and reshaped your body into whatever your new form was supposed to be. In Bel's case he was being reforged from a Pit Fiend to an Ice Devil. Currently, most of his Pit Fiend powers had already been removed but his body was still being reformed to the large insectile appearance of an Ice Devil. Once his transformation was complete he would be forced to return to the Bronze Citadel not as the rightful leader of Avernus but as an advisor to the fallen angel Zariel, the new archdevil. An insult to add to his injury.

Bel had been a general for the armies of the Nine Hells for a long time, but he had not always been so. He had started out as a lemure, which is the lowest form of devil in this plane. A lemure is what wicked human souls were turned into after they arrived in the Nine Hells. If they were lucky, lemures were eventually promoted to a higher devil rank. It was a point of pride for Bel that while he had started out as cannon fodder for the seemingly never ending Blood War that had been going on between demons and devils, he, along with his co-generals of the Third Command - the ice devils Meritos and Hanariel, had eventually led the armies that had given the devils some of their greatest victories against the demons. By this point he had been a pit fiend, the highest rank a devil could aspire to. The only rank higher was that of archdevil, who were the Lords of the different levels, and these were hand picked by Asmodeus himself, the Lord of the 9th level and the creator and ruler of all of Nine Hells.

Even though the position of Lord of Avernus held the least power out of all the levels it was arguably one of the most important jobs in all of the Nine Hells. Unfortunately, it also had a large turnover rate. At one point even Tiamat had held the job although she had not cared for it. She had lost interest quickly and when the fallen angel Zariel wrested it from her Tiamat negotiated a better deal from Asmodeus and became the guardian to the entrance to the second level. This job proved more to her liking. However, she still held a great dislike for Zariel. Bel was Zariel's general and when he had discovered that the fallen angel planned to betray Asmodeus he made the decision to inform the Arch Devil. Bel took advantage of Tiamat's dislike and approached her about forming an alliance against Zariel to which she eagerly agreed. She created many abishai to help boost Bel's armies. Zariel was easily bested and Asmodeus rewarded Bel with the seat of power. He was the first devil to ever make it from lemure to Arch Devil and Tiamat continued to be a willing ally. He used his armies wisely to keep Avernus free of invaders and stayed out of the politics as they were not to his liking.

He had thought long and hard about what he could have done to lose favor with Asmodeus. There was nothing he had done differently in the last 300 years so it must have been something else. In his time as ruler he had become a symbol of sorts for the lower devils, proof that if you worked hard and followed the rules it was possible to rise to the top. The story of Bel the Warlord had become the stuff of legends. Could he be a victim of his own success? Asmodeus must have thought that Bel had a real chance to start a viable revolt against him and so he ensured that could never happen by reinstating the previous Lord and sending Bel away while two of his main allies, Tiamat and Meritos, had gone missing.

The rules he had followed all this time were a lie. They had no other purpose than to keep the devils under the control of Asmodeus. That realization angered him. He had spent countless millennia focusing on nothing but protecting Avernus from invaders, never worrying about his own stature. Never working on creating a following. He had been the only archdevil without a mortal cult. If Asmodeus was so concerned about losing his place in Nine Hells maybe Bel *should* use his stature with the other devils to challenge the unfair system.

Until this very day, Bel had not seen a way out of his situation. He had remained listless throughout the whole painful process. However, now that he knew that a powerful mage on Earthland was about to summon an Ice Devil that changed everything. He began to contemplate his meager options and by the time the echoes of the word of power had dissipated he had the beginnings of a plan. From his position in the Maggot Pit he could get a glimpse of the entrance to Tiamat's Lair which served as the gateway to the Second Level of Hell, a place called Dis. Tiamat had up and disappeared without a trace about 6 months ago, probably summoned to Earthland by one of her cults, but she and Bel had been allies for centuries before that and the abishai were only loyal to her. If he could convince Arraka, the red tasked with guarding the Pit, to help him escape he might be able to hide in Tiamat's lair. There he would be able to evade detection and use the remainder of his pit fiend power to get an edge over any ice devil that might attempt to answer the summoning. It would be good to get out of Avernus for awhile and into the Prime Material Plane, also known as Earthland. Once there he could get to work on his plan to depose Asmodeus. Of course, there was just one problem with this plan. Arraka was one of the devils torturing him.

He called on his telepathy and focused on trying to reach into the mind of the red abishai.

Bel tried to project command into his voice so that Arraka would not dare oppose him. [Arraka, this is Bel.]

[What do you want prisoner?] Arraka answered. She sounded vaguely interested and she slowly turned to face his direction.

[I need to get out of here.] Bel tried not to sound as desperate as he felt. He knew Arraka was the only devil in the vicinity that might even consider helping him at the moment.

[You will, in 101 days.] She looked bored, as though she had expected more out of the conversation and was now done.

[I need to get out of here and you *will* help me, you insolent creature! ] He said as forcefully as he could manage in his current state.

[Don't make me laugh.] She looked at Bel with amusement, plainly letting him know that she knew she was in charge at the moment.

[What do you think your mistress would say if she knew you were working against one of her allies?]

[My mistress isn't here to say anything at the moment. In her absence I am free to act however I want.]

Bel stared at the stubborn abishai furiously. She was playing with him and wasting his time and it was really pissing him off. It was time to try some intimidation. [If you don't get me out of here today, I guarantee that your life will end in 101 days. I may be a prisoner now but we both know that once I leave this Pit I will still be second in command and in charge of the armies of Avernus. Do you really wish to make an enemy out of me?]

[I'm not afraid of you, Bel the *Ice Devil*.] Arraka took great joy in mocking the warlord, even though she was beginning to think she might have gone too far. Apparently, insects could look angry.

[Then you are a bigger fool than I thought. I am offering you the opportunity to do something for your mistress that no other devil can. ]

Arraka paused at that. If she was able to provide a valuable service to her mistress, there was no telling how great her reward would be. It certainly could not hurt to hear Bel out. Hoping that she would not come to regret this she replied in a more penitent tone, [I'm listening.]

[I'm working on a plan, it will take some time but if I'm successful I can make sure Tiamat is no longer stuck in this plane.]

[Can you really pull off this plan? If I help you and you fail my life will be forfeit.]

[Have I ever failed at any offensive?]

Arraka thought hard and could not come up with a single instance where the Warlord had lost a battle. If there was one devil you could bet on it was Bel. She sighed knowing that she would agree to help. The very real possibility of a reward from Tiamat was just too great to pass up. [What do you need from me?]

[Did you hear that word of power? I wish to hide in Tiamat's cave long enough that I can answer the summons. Once there, I will work on getting support on Earthland. No one knows the defenses of this plane better than I do.]

[You better not fail Bel the Warlord. I would not wish to be in your shoes if you do. You might become the first devil to be demoted all the way back to lemure. Let no one but Tiamat know of my assistance.]

Their conversation ended and Arraka remained at the edge of the Maggot Pit, overseeing the pain devils and keeping guard. Bel tried to be patient but hours passed and he was still waiting for Arraka to make her move. He was beginning to wonder whether the abishai had used their conversation as a sort of amusement when he felt himself being lifted from the ooze that enveloped him and before he was aware of what was happening he was in the air. He looked up to see two red abishai flying above him. They quickly dumped him inside of Tiamat's cave and flew away. Minutes later he heard Arraka screeching about a missing prisoner. The piercing sound of alarms filled the air and patrols of devils began to search for him but he would be safe here. Tiamat's cave was protected by her aura of fear and no devil was going to try to barge into her cave without her consent.

Now all he had to do was sit and wait.

o-o

A/N Next chapter: Watch Your Step

Thank you to Puck100 and djinnamon4 for reaching out to me on the last chapter :).


	11. Watch Your Step

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

Chapter 11: Watch Your Step

Lyon was sitting on the floor of Gray's living room, light pen still in hand. He had been drawing the same rune over and over until all the drawable space in the room was covered with it. He would wait until it disappeared and start all over again.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Freed was joking." Gray said as he grabbed the light pen out of the other's hand. "Go get some sleep before you mess up all the other runes tomorrow."

"He's right, Lyon. The best thing you can do to be ready for tomorrow is to get some rest." Silver added as he entered the living room from the kitchen where he had been cleaning up after dinner. "You have practiced the circle, you have chanted the incantation so many times I bet you have it memorized. You are ready, son." He smiled at him in encouragement, "This time tomorrow you will be an Ice Devil Slayer and we'll get started on your training."

"I know. I just don't want anything to go wrong."

"Nothing is going to go wrong, idiot." Gray said , "Except perhaps for your ego growing even more than anyone thought possible."

Lyon glared at him. "Like you're one to talk."

Gray smirked, "That's not ego, that's confidence in my abilities. I for one can't wait to be done with all this. I need to get back to work on the house if I want to finish before Natsu gets back."

"Whatever." Lyon said as he rolled his eyes at his brother, "I'll still help you, you know."

"That's ok, you need to focus on your training." Gray said seriously "I know Ur taught us to train hard but from what little Silver has said I get the feeling this will be more intense than that. You have to take this seriously, Lyon, you know the consequences if you don't."

Lyon huffed "I am taking this seriously, I don't intend to lose to some devil. Especially not inside my own body."

"Then start by going to bed." Silver interrupted. "You're going to need all your strength to get through tomorrow."

"Alright, alright! You win, I'll go to bed." Lyon glared at the two men wanting to let them know he was annoyed but in truth it made him glad that they cared about him enough to worry. It was nice to be part of a family again, even one as strange as this one.

He lay down on the couch and closed his eyes, pretending to go to sleep. He heard the other two go to bed after they had turned off the lights.

All of the practice had made him realize just how serious what he was doing was and it set his nerves on edge. The summoning alone could kill him if he did it wrong. He found himself having second thoughts but shoved them aside knowing they were caused by fear.

He wondered what the devil was going to look like. Silver had mentioned that ice devils were large insect like beings and that disgusted him a little. To have something like that inside of him, sharing his body, maybe even his thoughts was something he was struggling to come to terms with. He also knew that depending on the strength of the devil he would have to spend the next few years learning to control it and his new magic. He would have to be on his guard constantly to make sure his soul did not become corrupted. He eventually fell into a restless sleep.

Morning came faster than he was ready for as the sun's early morning rays woke him but Lyon knew he would not be able to get back to sleep. He got up and showered and dressed. He practiced the summoning a few more times, careful to not even think the words that he would only say at the proper time. Gray and Silver were still asleep. He decided to make breakfast so that he could do something with the nervous energy that coursed through his body. He got out eggs, bacon and milk. He got the large percolator they had bought when they tired of fighting over coffee out of the cabinet and got it running . These menial tasks began to calm him down and by the time the others awoke to the smell of coffee he felt more like his usual self.

They arrived at the guild to find Levy and Freed already there. They were both poring over the manuscripts and documents making sure they had not missed anything. Laxus was outside with Bickslow and Evergreen clearing out the area they were going to use for the summoning. Everyone seemed to be helping in some way and Lyon couldn't help but be impressed with how Fairy Tail worked. They were putting in all this work for someone who wasn't even a member of their guild, yet. In the back of his mind he had been thinking about joining, it made more sense with Silver being there.

"Freed, Laxus is asking for you." Romeo informed the rune mage. "He said he needs your help with something."

"Right away." Freed got up from the table and headed out after thanking Romeo for telling him. Romeo looked around and saw everyone was busy.

"Can I help too, Levy?" Romeo asked feeling a bit left out.

"Sure, can you go to the supply closet and grab some bone chalk please?" Levy asked without looking up from her manuscript. "It's right next to the regular chalk so make sure you grab the correct one."

"Sure thing!" Romeo replied as he quickly made his way to the guild's supply closet. He opened the door and turned on the overhead light. The room was full of materials used in spells. There were shelves full of different types of candles, chalks, herbs, incense, crystals and all sorts of other materials, all neatly labeled in Mira's handwriting. He was looking through the different chalk when he was startled by a voice behind him.

"I never knew this room existed." Wendy looked at all the different shelves in awe.

"Yeah, they rarely do any spells that require any of this stuff. Natsu used to steal the chalk from here for me when I was little so I could draw outside in the summer. " Romeo grinned. "Erza would yell at him and chase him off but then she and Levy would spend hours drawing with me."

"It must have been fun to grow up with them." Wendy said.

"Not really, they forgot about me most of the time. Natsu was always different though." Romeo said with a warm smile, "It's weird to see him play with Asuka now. That's how he used to be with me."

Wendy smiled, "I remember, it's been really quiet around here without him. I can't wait until he gets back. What are you looking for anyway?"

"Bone chalk. Lyon needs it to draw the summoning circle and the runes." Romeo noticed that Wendy's face looked troubled. "Is something wrong?"

Wendy looked unsure but answered, "It's Carla. I think she had a vision but she won't tell me about it. She's been having nightmares but every time I ask she just says that we can't stop it, whatever it is has to happen. I think it has something to do with Gray and Natsu. She's been acting strangely ever since he got that letter from Natsu."

"Why does she do always that? What's the point of being able to see the future if you never do anything to change it?"

Wendy shrugged unhappily, she had often thought the same thing but she couldn't force Carla to tell her something if she didn't want to. Romeo grabbed the chalk without paying much attention, his thoughts now on what Carla might have two of them went up to the main guild hall. Romeo handed the chalk to Levy who thanked him and put it on the table without looking at it.

"Maybe we should try talking to her again." Romeo suggested. "It's not like we're needed around here."

"I guess it can't hurt to try." Wendy agreed, "She said she was going to go talk to Lily."

They headed out the door in search of the Exceeds just as Bickslow was making his way back inside.

"We're ready for you outside, the whole area's been cleared out." Bickslow informed Lyon.

"Thanks, I'll be out in a few minutes." Lyon said. This was it, he needed to get started drawing the summoning circle while the sun was high in the sky. It was already late fall in Magnolia and the days were getting shorter. He felt eyes on him and turned to see Silver and Gray observing him.

"Let's go." Lyon said as he grabbed the chalk, the drawing of the summoning circle and the paper with the incantation and headed outside.

Silver and Gray followed him out. They reached the area that had been set up for the ceremony and watched as Freed created some runes around the space.

"What's he doing?" Silver asked Laxus as they watched the rune mage.

"He's creating a protective barrier around the space. A lot of the guild members want to watch and I want to make sure it's safe for them to do so. If something were to go wrong it will be up to the three of you to take care of it.

"Three of us?" Silver raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you, Gray and Lyon." Laxus replied. "Gray said he promised Lyon that he would be there with him."

Silver shot a worried look at his son. He knew that if Gray had made a promise to Lyon there was no way he would be able to talk him out of it but he would feel so much better if his son was on the other side of the protective runes during the summoning. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong. He knew he was being irrational, they had taken every precaution possible to make sure that everything went smoothly. If Gray was determined to be in here then at the very least he would keep him as close to him as possible.

Gray followed his brother and watched as he began to draw the large circles needed for the summoning. "Those look more like ovals." he teased. "Do you think the devil will still come if your circles look like shit?"

Lyon tensed and stopped what he was doing. He stood up and glanced at his handiwork. He was annoyed to see that Gray was indeed correct. He began to shake a bit as he once again realized the immensity of what he was attempting but he didn't want to give Gray the satisfaction of being right.

"On and I suppose you could do better?" Lyon asked haughtily.

"In my sleep and with one hand tied behind my back." Gray replied easily. "Here, I'll show you." He grabbed the chalk and was about to start drawing when he looked at the chalk carefully. "What's this?"

"What are you talking about?" Lyon looked at the chalk, not noticing anything strange about it at all.

"This isn't bone chalk, this is just regular chalk. Are you trying to sabotage this before it begins?"

"I've never seen bone chalk, I have no idea how it would be different." Lyon shrugged but he was a little shaken.

Silver had made his way over to them and grabbed the chalk from Gray's hand. "He's right, this is just regular chalk. Bone chalk is grittier and it has a bit of a different smell. It's also more gray than white." He gestured over to Laxus and asked for the right chalk to be brought. Laxus opted to go get it himself to avoid any further mistakes. Silver relaxed a bit, maybe this had been it. There had been a mistake but Gray had caught it and everything else would be fine. He smiled at Gray and saw the relief in his eyes reflected back at him.

"There's still time to back out, if that's what you want." Silver told Lyon seriously. "No one here will think any less of you."

"No." Lyon said forcefully. "I'm ready to do this, I'm just jittery."

"Remember in order to stay safe you need to stay in your side of the circle. If you step out of it at any time before the ritual is done the circle will be broken and the devil will no longer be bound." Silver reminded him for what had to be the tenth time that day.

"Stay in the circle, got it." Lyon parroted back at him.

"Ok, You're going to do fine and if something happens I've got your back." Gray said and pulled him in for a hug. "Anything you need, I'm here." He let go and when Laxus returned he took the bone chalk from his hand and created two perfect conjoining circles. He handed the chalk back to Lyon and whispered, "Good Luck." before heading over to his father.

o-o

"Happy is going to hate me when he learns that I could have stopped it." Carla sobbed into Lily's broad shoulder. "Surely there must be another way."

"He won't hate you. He might be upset at first but he'll come to understand with time." Lily said soothingly. "You've already searched through all possible futures, there is no other way. Lyon would kill him without a second thought."

"I hate this power, why does it show me these things if I can't do anything about them?" Carla said angrily.

"Maybe you are meant to be a witness, to give voice to the bigger picture when hope is at its lowest." Lily said trying to give meaning to something he didn't understand himself. "Are you sure you want to go watch? You've already seen it in your head many times and you might be tempted to stop it if you're there."

"I will go, it is my responsibility and I will not be a coward." Carla said with sad determination. "If fate wants me to view it I will be there."

"Alright, let's go then. They should be getting started soon." Lily said and the two of them called upon their Aera magic to fly them back to the guild.

Romeo and Wendy had been looking around for Gajeel thinking that Pantherlily would be with him but the Iron Dragon Slayer had been on his way to the guild when they found him. He told them that the Exceeds had headed over to the riverbank earlier and might still be there. They thanked him for his help and hurried to the riverbank only to find it empty. Discouraged they made their way back to the guild. Laxus had asked Wendy to be there for the ceremony in case Lyon needed to be healed.

o-o

"There is one mistake here but that's easily fixed." Freed pointed out the incorrect rune and Lyon hurried to fix it. "Everything else looks fine. You did a very good job. Some of those runes were very complex, I know it wasn't easy."

Freed stepped back once Lyon had corrected the faulty rune and checked it one last time. "You're all set. Good luck, Lyon." Freed said as he extended his hand to shake with the older man. He patted his shoulder and walked out of the protective circle closing the runes behind him as he did so. Only the three ice mages remained inside the barrier.

Lyon looked over at Silver and Gray one last time and while they both smiled at him encouragingly he couldn't help but notice that they looked a bit worried. He rolled his eyes at them and headed to his place in the summoning circle.

He took deep breaths and tried to feel the rhythm that he would need to follow while he chanted the incantation. He tried to hear the metronome in his head. Once he could feel the rhythm clearly he called on his ice make magic and created a large wall of ice that would serve as the portal from the Nine Hells to Earthland. He took a deep breath and before he could give much thought to what he was doing he began his chant as everyone waited anxiously for what would happen next. The runes in the circle began to glow.

o-o

Bel had grown impatient hiding in Tiamat's Lair. A white abishai had shown up a few hours earlier with some food and drink and had shown him to a lake where he could bathe and remove the nasty remains of the Maggot Pit from his body. He would have to remember to reward Arraka when he returned. She had gone beyond what he had expected. He refused to sleep, worried that he might miss the summoning but the water of the lake must have had some revitalizing magic within it for he felt rested.

He felt the power collecting in the air and he ran outside. He did not look at his surroundings focusing solely on the words that were echoing all around him. He scanned the sky trying to pinpoint where the portal was going to open. He felt the bitter cold before he saw the hole open up some ways away. That's when he used up what was left of his pit fiend magic to propel himself through as soon as the portal was big enough for him to pass. He felt it close behind him and heard the cries of anger of the other ice devils that had tried to answer the summoning.

He smiled in triumph as he stood in front of a white haired human who was still chanting. There were large chunks of ice that were all that was left of the portal he had come through. The human was exerting a large amount of magic power. He could sense many powerful magical signatures that were even stronger close by but they felt muted. He looked down at his feet and saw that he was bound inside of a circle. The runes looked stronger than what he was used to and this aroused his curiosity. These mages were well prepared. He would have to negotiate some sort of contract with the white haired ice mage.

Lyon felt his ice explode into large chunks and saw a gigantic insect looking creature standing in the other circle staring back at him. It was at least twelve feet tall and it stood on taloned feet. In its arms it carried a large ice spear which was pointed straight at Lyon. It stared at Lyon with a despective glare and chirped in a rather loud and aggressive manner.

Behind the protective barrier various screams were heard as Laxus eyes widened in disbelief at the events unfolding in front of him. Freed could be seen checking all of the runes in the protective barrier.

"That thing is going to go inside of him? How does that even work, it's like twice as big as Lyon?" Evergreen said to Elfman who only shrugged in answer.

Carla could be heard crying beside Wendy as the young girl tried to calm her down. "What's wrong Carla? Please tell me." The Exceed did not answer but Wendy could see she was looking towards where Gray and Silver were standing together, both looking agitated. It all happened so fast, Wendy could barely register the individual movements as her heart sank and tears began to fill her eyes as well.

Lyon instinctively stepped backwards as the ice devil charged at him with his spear, and his back leg stepped outside of the circle. He did not hear Silver and Gray scream at him to stay in the circle over the screams that were coming from the other side the barrier. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he quickly got into his ice make molding position and yelled out "Ice-Make Eagles".

Dozens of sculpted eagles flew at Bel and he looked at them with interest knowing that they could not hurt him. He let them hit him and then moved towards the ice mage who had summoned him and touched him with his spear. The ice mage who had been moving towards him tripped as his movement was unexpectedly slowed and fell to the ground. Bel approached him holding his spear at the ready. This had far exceeded his expectations, now that the mage had exited the circle there was no longer anything binding him. There would be no contract he could just possess the human's body and take control over it.

"Ice-Devil Rage" Silver shouted hoping that his devil would cooperate with him. He felt magic course through his body but it was devoid of his Slayer magic. He was only able to spew out normal ice and while it was strong he already knew that it would be useless against the devil. He cursed as the ice devil turned his attention towards him. It left Lyon lying on the ground and made his way towards him.

Gray saw the ice devil advance towards his father and he quickly placed himself in front of him his body quickly getting into his molding stance.

"What are you doing Gray, get out of the way!" Silver screamed.

"I'm trying to protect you, go help Lyon!" Gray yelled at his father as he got ready to attack. "Ice-Make Lance"

Bel evaluated the two powerful mages that were trying to fight against him. The older one had tried to use ice devil magic against him but it had failed. That must mean that he already had an ice devil inside of him. He would be of no use to him. The younger one though, Bel could sense great magical power inside of him. He would do nicely, Bel transformed his body into the vessel that would allow him to enter the younger mage's body, it appered as a thick cloud of smoke . The lances that were flying at him went right through the trail of smoke and crashed into the barrier. Bel's essence surrounded the ice mage before he could react, It only took a few seconds to force himself into the body of his chosen host through his mouth, nose and ears.

"GRAY!" Silver screamed as he tried to grab his son's body out of the smoke, but he was too late. Once no more smoke could be seen Gray's body began to writhe and shake and agonizing screams were heard until suddenly there was nothing. Gray lay on the ground unconscious.

"GRAAAY!" Lyon cried in anguish as he rushed over to his brother's body. 'No, no, no. What have I done?"

Then all that could be heard was the screams of all the guild members who had witnessed the horrible turn of events.


	12. Fade To Black

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

Chapter 12: Fade To Black

Dust obscured Natsu's vision and he heard a voice hidden within the cloud shout: "Pleiades!"

Natsu knew what was happening next, and he braced himself and looked to the sky. Six streaks of light descended from the heavens, and he tracked each of them as they darted in toward him. Starting from a compact stance with his arms crossed, he stopped the first two bolts with perfectly timed outer blocks. His fists burst into flames and took out the next pair with a lightning fast one-two combo. The fifth bolt curved and came in low toward his side. Natsu raised his leg, bent at the knee, and balanced himself with one arm raised and the other fist straight out and pointed at the incoming bolt. His opponent was briefly impressed as Natsu was able to take the hit of the magic on his blocking leg, not shifting in the slightest even though he was balanced on one foot.

Jellal smiled as he saw the sixth and final bolt headed straight for Natsu's back. He knew it would sting like hell and probably blast Natsu head over heels, but he also knew it wasn't powerful enough by itself to endanger Natsu's life. Wanting to ensure this was the last round of the training bout, Jellal started casting his next spell immediately so it's longer charge time would complete before Natsu could recover. "Heavenly body magic… Altaris!"

However, even with his back to the incoming strike, Natsu had perfectly timed and tracked all six of the bolts. With blinding speed, he bent the leg he was standing on, then leapt up and leaned into a backflip. His raised leg struck out in a flaming kick that turned into a circle of fire as he completed his flip and his foot struck the bolt, driving it into the ground in an explosion of light, flame, sound, and a shockwave that shuddered through the earth.

Jellal's jaw gaped and he momentarily lost track of his concentration on his spell as he was amazed at how fast Natsu's training was progressing and how his power continued to grow by leaps and bounds.

Natsu saw Jellal had left himself wide open and swiftly took advantage of the rare mistake. From the low crouch he was in after his flip, he looked up at Jellal with a wicked grin and shouted, "Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!" He was in the middle of his charge toward Jellal when he began to feel a twinge of uneasiness. He ignored it and focused on his attack, it was not wise to take your attention away from an opponent, especially one as powerful and resourceful as this one. His body was wreathed in flames as he instantly closed the distance between him and Jellal. His head struck Jellal in the chest and launched the mage backward. The dangerous looking black sphere that had been building above Jellal's head wavered and disappeared with a sound almost like an embarrassed hiccup as Jellal flew back into a tree and then landed on his butt with a grunt.

Natsu's fierce smile faltered as the strange uneasiness grew stronger and to his confusion his heart began to race uncomfortably in his chest. Natsu shook his head feeling disconcerted, their match had not been going on that long, and there was no reason for him to feel this way. What were these odd symptoms that were wracking his body?

Jellal got up, face determined as he advanced towards Natsu. He prepared his next spell but stopped mid-cast as the pink haired mage raised one arm up in the air, his open palm facing Jellal in the signal they had agreed upon to halt their sparring sessions if the need arose. Natsu had never used it before. He couldn't help but notice that Natsu's other hand was placed over his heart and his face looked ashen.

"Natsu are you ok?" Jellal asked with concern as he cautiously moved towards the Fire Dragon Slayer. He looked around to see if he could spot any mages that could be causing this but he thought it unlikely. He didn't feel any strange magic and Natsu's exceed was out on patrol, he would have told them had anyone been close by.

Natsu tried to answer Jellal's question but his heart continued to race painfully and he was finding it hard to focus on his surroundings. He tried to figure out what could be causing the strange sensations. Was one of the other members of Crime Sorciere joining the sparring session? That didn't make sense, Jellal looked worried and that is not the way their sparring sessions worked. Could he be going into labor? That would be awkward. He hadn't told anyone here he was pregnant. He had figured if they knew they would either make fun of him or worse go easy on him and that was not what he wanted. He didn't think that was right either, this didn't feel anything at all like what had happened on the Cube.

His thoughts were interrupted as a new sensation overwhelmed him and now he was really starting to panic, both because he did not understand what was happening and because what he was feeling could only be described as pure and absolute terror. It was taking over his mind and he was held helpless in its grasp. He began to emit an almost inhuman howl as fear unlike any he had felt since his capture flooded his body. He desperately tried to gain control of his addled mind. He knew there was nothing here for him to be afraid of so the fear had to be coming from somewhere else. But where? Where could it be coming from? He stopped breathing briefly as he finally understood, the answer so obvious he had missed it. All of these feelings were coming in through the soulbond. Gray was in danger!

Natsu continued to howl, unable to stop. The fear paralyzed him and he could only watch helplessly as his body began to shake and writhe. All he wanted was to move, to find whatever was causing his mate to feel this way and cover it in his hottest flames until only ashes remained. His dragon instincts added to the cacophony that was going on inside his body as they snarled at him to do something before it was too late.

"ERIK!" Jellal screeched as he watched Natsu continue to deteriorate. "I need you!"

Cobra came running from a different part of the camp where he had been training with Macbeth. They had set off towards them as soon as they had heard Natsu's howls. When they arrived they were surprised to see the camp was not under attack. Cobra covered his ears to drown out Natsu's howls but it was not much help.

"NATSU?" Cobra screamed with concern as he rushed towards the Fire Dragon Slayer. The dragon slayer's thoughts were almost as loud as his howls, making it hard for Cobra to focus on any words and causing him actual pain, it almost felt like his ears were bleeding.

"Natsu, you have to calm down." Cobra yelled. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He tried to ignore the volume as he worked on deciphering the thoughts but all he could hear was Natsu scream the name Gray over and over like a mantra.

Natsu finally stopped howling and managed to take some deep breaths even though they made the pain in his heart more pronounced. He desperately tried to calm down long enough to answer the Poison Dragon Slayer. "Gray, something wrong. Don't know what." he managed to pant out.

Natsu's mind raced as he tried to figure out what could be happening to Gray, but he had no idea where the ice mage was or what he could be doing. Had he gone on a job with Erza and Lucy? Did he take a solo mission? Was the guild under attack? He felt helpless and he berated himself for having left Magnolia for this long. His throat felt raw from all the howling but he felt the worst was over now. Or so he thought, before he could relax he began to feel an incredible pressure in his ears, mouth and nose. It felt like something thick was forcing its way inside of him and he fought for air as he began to choke on the phantom substance. He felt Gray's terror and disgust and then there was nothing but pain. Natsu's own panic over his mate's well being fought with the feelings that had taken control of his body. He'd barely had time to catch his breath from the almost constant choking he'd felt before his entire body was assaulted by a wave of pain worse than any injury he had ever sustained. It felt like every cell in his body had been reprogrammed with pain at its center. He fell to his knees in agony, he didn't know how much longer he could withstand this and almost like a surrender his body collapsed to the ground. He face planted with some force, the pain so great that he could not focus on any one particular part of his body to help break his fall. He didn't even feel the impact although he was able to smell his blood. He managed to roll on to his back but soon began to feel lightheaded and a dark tinge began to cloud the outer limits of his vision.

The agonizing pain finally stopped but he wished it hadn't because in it's absence there was nothing to keep him from realizing with growing horror and dread that the steady hum of the bond he shared with Gray had gone eerily quiet.

Ever since they had performed the ritual he'd always been able to feel something, even with the distance that now separated them. Sometimes it was small twinges of sadness or tiredness. Often it was surges of warmth that could only be described as love and Natsu selfishly liked to think these were the moments when Gray thought of him. He loved those little reminders that they were connected but even when there was nothing specific there had always been something there that just felt like Gray.

"Gray?" Natsu asked of no one in particular, his voice sounded small, almost childlike. He flooded the soulbond with his own feelings of love and worry hoping that he would get some sort of response no matter how weak, but nothing came.

Natsu let out an ear piercing wail as soon as he discovered that he could no longer feel anything at all coming through the soulbond. His throat felt like it was being torn apart but Natsu hardly cared. He had never experienced such a deep level of despair, not even when he'd discovered that Igneel had abandoned him. He felt like his heart was literally breaking in pieces at the mere thought that his mate now lay dead somewhere. The only comfort to be had was that wherever he was Gray had not died alone, Natsu had shared every one of his last moments with him. There was nothing to be done anymore, no matter how angry Natsu was or how much he wanted to make whoever did this to his beloved pay Gray's soul would soon call to his and he would have no choice but to follow him. His hand moved down to the crystal that hung from the chain around his neck and wrapped itself around it tenderly. He was thankful that he would not be forced to live a long empty life without his mate, their souls would soon be joined together in the afterlife. He relaxed and waited, this was one time where he would gladly stay down. He thought about Gray and how happy he had made him the last few months, remembered as many moments as he could until it was time to go. He had one last thought before everything faded to black. He put his other hand on his belly as he spoke to his son one last time

"I'm sorry Kai. We loved you very much." Natsu muttered with regret before he closed his eyes and welcomed the darkness that surrounded him completely with a smile. He would be with his love soon, their souls joined for eternity.


	13. Welcome Back

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

A/N Words contained within [ ] refer to telepathic communication.

Chapter 13

"What the fuck just happened?" Macbeth muttered as he tried to make sense of what he had seen. He was just as shaken as Cobra and Jellal but he kneeled over the Fire Dragon Slayer and checked his vitals to assure himself that the mage was still alive.

Jellal and Cobra just shook their heads, neither of them having an answer for their friend.

"Did you hear anything while it was happening?" Jellal demanded. He was recalling their spar trying to think of anything unusual that might have set Natsu off.

"I don't think he had any clue, all I heard was him screaming the name Gray over and over." Cobra reported shakily. "That's the ice mage, right?"

Jellal nodded.

"He had a lot of thoughts about him and he also apologized to someone named Kai before he passed out. He *is* passed out, right?"

Midnight finished checking Natsu over and got up. "Yes, he's breathing. I think whatever happened overwhelmed his senses and his body shut down."

A flash of blue flew past them before landing next to Natsu. It examined the body closely before looking up at the three mages. 'What's wrong with Natsu? Did you hurt him Jellal?" Happy glared at the heavenly body mage.

"Of course not!" Jellal huffed. They trained hard but he would never do anything that could put Natsu in any real danger.

The blue Exceed continued to glare at him unconvinced.

Cobra startled and his stance became defensive as he focused his hearing on Natsu.

"What's the matter?" Macbeth asked. He'd known the Poison Dragon Slayer long enough to recognize that something had surprised him.

"Natsu's unconscious but I can still hear thoughts inside of him."

"What's so weird about that?" Jellal looked confused.

"He's out cold Jellal, his mind should be quiet. Also I doubt he thinks of himself as Father."

"Father? What else can you hear? Can you talk to it?"

"I'm not telepathic. I can hear its thoughts but I can't communicate with it." Cobra listened, "Whatever it is it's worried about Natsu."

"Is this the first time you've heard it?"

Cobra nodded. It actually explained why Natsu's thoughts had been louder than usual since he had reached the camp. He must have been trying to protect it in case Cobra could hear it.

Jellal was very disconcerted by what he had just seen. What could have happened to make Natsu react that way? Well, he had telepathy, he supposed it was worth a try. He focused his telepathy on Natsu trying to find the sentient being that Cobra said was there. He felt a small tug and was connected to…..something. It didn't feel human.

[Hello, I am Jellal]

His greeting was not returned although he was fairly sure that the being had heard him. He tried again.

[Are you Kai?]

Silence.

[I don't want to hurt you. I just want to know who you are.]

He sighed and disconnected himself.

"It heard you." Cobra said. "It sounded scared, I don't think it's dangerous. I just don't get how it's there."

Jellal mulled it over. There were too many things happening that he could not understand or easily explain. That made him feel uneasy. When it came to Natsu there was one person he could always count on and if something had happened to Gray she might be in danger as well. He quickly took out the miniature communication lacrima Erza had given him the last time he had seen her.

"I should try to reach Erza, she'll want to know that Natsu is with us and maybe she'll have more information about whatever just happened. It couldn't hurt to ask for Fairy Tail's help with Avatar either. They're proving to be a bigger problem than we originally thought. All we seem to do is keep them from destroying towns. We haven't gotten any closer."

He walked away from the others to get some privacy and looked for the slip of paper Erza had given him. He tapped in the numbers on the screen of the communication device and waited for a response. He returned a few minutes later looking agitated.

"Erza's on her way back to Fairy Tail now, she was on a job with Lucy. She should be there soon. She said she'll call me back as soon as she learns anything but she was able to tell me what's inside him. Natsu is pregnant, that being is his son."

Jellal shook his head in disbelief still trying to make sense of the things Erza had told him.

"She also said that Natsu and Gray are mated and can feel each other through some sort of bond they share, which means it's very likely something did happen to Gray."

"Pregnant?" Cobra asked curiously. He blanched as he thought of some of the things he had heard in Natsu's thoughts during his nightmare.

"You don't seem surprised at hearing they were mated." Jellal noted.

"I'm not. Natsu's thoughts are very loud and he thinks about this Gray guy a lot." Cobra coughed. "I thought he was doing it to piss me off."

Jellal nodded. "Take Natsu to his tent. There seems to be a lot that he has failed to tell us."

"I think I know some of it." Cobra admitted with a guilty expression.

Jellal glared at the Poison Dragon Slayer. "You've been holding out on me? Does any of it have to do with why he's looking for Zeref?"

"I wasn't holding out on you, I just didn't think it was any of your business."

"That wasn't your decision to make." Jellal snapped. "Does it have anything to do with why you've been avoiding Natsu since he got here?"

"Yes." Cobra admitted.

"After you put Natsu in his tent I want you to come back here and tell me everything before everyone comes back."

Cobra picked up the dragon slayer and placed him over his shoulder as he carried him to his tent with a worried Happy flying next to him. He checked Natsu's vitals before heading back to Jellal. He knew this day was going to come but he had expected to have this conversation with Natsu, not Jellal. He hoped Natsu would forgive him for disclosing some of the things he had heard in his thoughts.

Jellal sat with his back against a tree for support. Cobra approached him slowly trying to figure out how to phrase what he had to say.

"I didn't know what she had done. I would never have helped her if I had." Cobra began, he looked at the ground so he would not have to look into Jellal's eyes.

o-o

"Everyone calm down and shut the hell up!" Laxus yelled into the crowd. "Wendy, come here please. Everyone else get back in the guild."

Wendy walked towards Laxus, eyes still teary but determined to do her very best to help Gray.

Freed, Evergreen and Bickslow also stayed behind to help although they weren't quite sure what to do at the moment.

"Silver, is Gray ok?" Laxus asked calmly.

"He's breathing, I don't know anything more than that at the moment." Silver replied.

"Silver, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" Lyon tried to apologize but was cut off.

"Not now, Lyon." Silver snapped. "We can talk about it once we know what's wrong."

"Is it safe to take down the rune barrier?" Laxus asked.

"I think so, the devil is already inside of Gray, he's not going anywhere. Lyon can you please destroy the summoning circle before the barrier comes down. I want to be sure no other devils try to find their way through, it shouldn't be possible but we might as well be careful."

Lyon nodded dejectedly and headed towards the summoning circle still not quite believing what had happened. He painstakingly erased all of the runes, being careful to not leave any marks behind. Once they dispelled the barrier he would go get some water so that he could wash everything out completely. He looked at the perfect circles that Gray had drawn for him less than an hour earlier and his hands began to shake as the enormity of what had just happened truly hit him.

He had just destroyed Gray's life. If they couldn't find a way to get this thing out of him, Gray was going to lose everything he had been working towards for the last few months. Natsu would leave him, might even not let him see his son. All because he had selfishly asked Gray to be there with him instead of behind the safety of the rune barrier. He had been a coward, had let his fear control him. If he had stayed inside the circle like Silver had warned him, none of this would have happened. The devil had been bound, he could not have hurt him. He no longer wanted be a Slayer but if he could somehow convince the Ice Devil to take him instead he would happily carry the burden that should have been his so that his brother could have his life back. He slowly erased the circles and informed the others that he was done. He tried not to take it personally when Silver came over to check his work before giving the ok. He couldn't really blame him.

Freed dispelled the barrier and Wendy and Laxus approached Gray's unconscious body. Wendy reached out with her magic feeling for any injuries but finding none.

"His body feels different than before but there's not really anything for me to heal. I think we'll just have to wait until he wakes up to find out what happened. We should take him inside to the infirmary."

Silver quickly picked Gray up in his arms and carried him back into the guild and up the stairs to the infirmary as the others followed close behind, save for Lyon who went in search of some water to completely wash out the summoning circles. Silver placed Gray on the nearest bed and stared looking for anything that might look different. He saw black tendrils trying to coalesce into some sort of tattoo on his son's right arm that looked eerily similar to his own. The Ice Devil was making himself right at home.

How could this have happened? They had been so damn careful, taken so many precautions and still this happened. He had been trying to contain his anger at Lyon but he knew he had failed. Lyon needed to hear that he didn't blame him for his mistake, and he didn't. Well, not much. He promised himself that he would talk to him soon but right now he needed to assess his son's situation and he needed to have it out with a certain devil who had betrayed him when he'd needed him the most. He sat down on the chair that was near Gray's bed and watched as Wendy fussed over him some more before making her way downstairs.

[Why didn't you attack?] Silver asked Meritos furiously.

[I could not.] Meritos replied evenly.

[What is that supposed to mean? You are contracted to me, or does loyalty to your own race supersede that?]

Meritos winced at all the emotions that were coming from the man he had come to think of as his partner over the last seventeen years. There was pain and anger but also betrayal. He hoped he could make Silver understand the rightness of his actions. Ice Devils always looked at the big picture before they decided to act and in this case attacking the Ice Devil that he immediately recognized as Bel would have had disastrous consequences.

[Acting against this particular devil would have been counterproductive. He would have bested me, we would have gained a powerful enemy and you would have still lost your son. By not attacking him I have shown him that I am still his ally. This way we might have a chance to get your son back.]

Silver remained silent thinking over what Meritos had said and daring to hope that there might be a way to get Gray back to normal before Natsu returned from his training mission.

[Still his ally? You know him then. Who is he, what does he want?]

Meritos sighed, this was not going to go over well.

[All I can tell you is that his name is Bel, I'm sure he will tell you that much himself. I know not why he is here, it makes no sense for him to leave Avernus.]

[How can you expect me to trust you when you won't tell me anything?] Silver screamed at Meritos in frustration.

[It's best if you don't know. Either trust me or don't, it's all the same to me. I will speak no more of this.]

Meritos disconnected from Silver and cursed in Infernal. If Bel was here odds were something bad had gone down in Avernus. He was either running from Asmodeus or looking for additional support for the never ending Blood War. Either way Meritos wanted nothing to do with any of it. When he had been summoned by Silver he had not been pleased but his contracted human was not unpleasant and after all these years on Earthland Meritos was well aware of how good he had it and he had no desire to return to the Nine Hells. He was tired of fighting an endless war. Silver had fed his blood lust by searching out demons that Meritos could send back to the Abyss. It was his bad luck that Bel had found him right away. He had a feeling he was not going to like whatever his general had in mind.

o-o

Freed walked into the infirmary and began to write runes around Gray's bed. Silver looked at him warily.

"What do you think you're doing?" Silver growled protectively.

"Sorry, Silver." Freed replied absently as he continued writing with his light pen, "Laxus' orders. He wants to keep Gray contained until we can ascertain that he isn't a threat. It will still allow others in to tend to any injuries. Don't worry, these runes won't hurt him, at worst they'll make him mad."

Silver himself wanted to be mad but he knew it was the right thing to do, Laxus was responsible for the safety of all the mages in the guild and so far he had managed that admirably. Silver had a feeling his grandfather would be proud.

"What are those runes on his arm?" Freed asked with interest. "They weren't there before."

Silver lifted the sleeve of his long sleeved shirt and showed Freed his tattoo. "It marks him as an Ice Devil Slayer, it's the conduit that will allow him to use his new magic."

"I see. We need you downstairs, we're trying to come up with ideas for how to handle this but you know more about this than any of us. Bickslow thinks he might be able to help and forgive me for saying so but Lyon looks a bit lost."

Silver sighed. "You're right of course, besides he's shown no signs of waking up." He stood up and followed Freed out of the infirmary and into the main guild area.

He ordered a beer from Mira and sat down at the table where the others were discussing possible courses of action. Lyon sat at the table looking forlorn, he didn't seem to be participating.

"I think it could work." Bickslow said. "I could try to pull the devil's soul out of Gray and insert it into something."

"Have you ever attempted to do that with a soul that was that powerful?" Evergreen asked looking at the Seith Mage with concern.

"Well...no, but the theory should be the same regardless."

"That seems dangerous, Bicks." Ever pointed out. "You have no idea what could happen or even if one of your babies could hold it."

"You could put it in me." Lyon said eagerly.

Laxus ignored Lyon and turned to Silver. "Have you learned anything new?"

"I have a name but not much else." Silver replied. "Meritos said that the devil's name is Bel. He said that this Bel is more powerful than him so he would not have been able to defeat him. He claims by not acting Bel might see him as an ally and might be more reasonable."

"Levy?" Laxus looked around for the script mage who was sitting as usual with Gajeel and her team.

"I'm on it. I'll look through all of the books we have on devils to see if there is any mention of him." She quickly got up and made her way to the guild library that she and Freed had spent the last two months painstakingly restocking with books. They were hopeful that they would not have to do it ever again. They had taken a trip to the remains of the Penta Dragon's guild to observe the protections that had allowed the room to remain untouched when the rest of the building had crumbled from the fire and they had improved on it. They were fairly certain their library would now be able to withstand just about any type of destruction up to a direct Etherion blast although she wasn't quite sure where the natural disaster that was Natsu fell in that scale.

Unfortunately, they had lost a lot of books that would take years to replace. Some were irreplaceable. They were experimenting with ways to enchant their speed reading glasses to rewrite books they had already read but had not had much luck yet. They had a feeling some of those books on dragons and dragon slayers would still be needed.

"Did you not hear me?" Lyon said annoyed at being ignored.

"I heard you." Laxus said carefully. "It's just a stupid ass thing to do. You saw what it did to Gray. Is that what you want?"

"It's my fault he's like this. I have to do something." Lyon insisted.

"Duly noted. My answer is still no." Laxus glared at the ice mage. "Listen clearly for I will only say this once. The devil is already here and can't be bound as before. I will not substitute one life for another. So if you want to make it up to your brother find another way to do so that does not include sacrificing your own life. If he was here right now, I'm sure Gray would agree with me."

"Not to state the obvious but shouldn't we try to find Salamander." Gajeel asked. "He's going to be pissed when he finds out Gray's in trouble and we didn't get him. Not to mention he's got to know something's up already."

"How on Earth would he know anything? He's supposed to be all the way over in Mikage Forest." Laxus reminded him.

"They're soul bonded moron, they can feel when the other is in pain, and that sounded pretty damn painful" Gajeel informed him.

"Oh fuck, we need to figure this out quick! The last thing we need is a panicked Natsu screwing everything up." Laxus said as he rubbed his temples with his fingers to try to soothe away his headache.

"Natsu can't know this happened until after we find a solution." Silver said his voice full of steel.

"I know Gray's your son but you don't want to keep a dragon slayer from his mate." Gajeel warned him.

"Natsu told Gray that if he pursued Devil Slayer magic they would be through." Silver informed them. "Gray did not choose this, he shouldn't have to suffer those consequences without us trying to find a solution first. So find him if you have to, make something up as to some injury, I don't care what you say just don't screw this up for Gray." He ended on a pleading note.

"I'll go find him." Lyon said eagerly, "I'll explain what's happened, I'm sure he'll understand."

He looked surprised as everyone around him began to laugh.

Laxus could barely speak. "I didn't know you had a death wish, Vastia. There are so many things wrong with that statement I don't even know where to start!"

"Assuming he even listens after you say Gray's in trouble, have you thought about what he'll do to you once he finds out that your actions will keep him from his boy toy?" He went into another laughing fit. "Natsu understand?" He finally got himself under control. "Oh man, I needed that."

"We will find a way to help you redeem yourself, but stop trying to get your life taken in the process. I've already told you I won't trade one life for another, Lyon."

"Bickslow's idea is the best one I've heard so far." Laxus said over Evergreen's protests. "Anyone else?" He looked at all the mages sitting around the table expectantly. He was about to say something when he felt a powerful surge of magic power in the air.

The second floor of the guild began to shake and for a moment they all stared at each other too shocked to move. They watched the dust float down to the first floor dislodged by the shuddering of the wood.

"Well, it looks like he's awake." Bickslow said cheerfully, seemingly undisturbed by the commotion.

Silver looked around the guild hall urgently, looking for the white haired barmaid that would normally tend to the wounded. He couldn't see her anywhere.

"Where's Mira?" he asked trying not to show his concern for the takeover mage who would be the absolute worst person for the Ice Devil to see when he woke up.

They all began to look around for the cheerful barmaid but were distracted from their search for a moment as a furious looking Erza entered the guild, doors slamming shut behind her and a meek looking Lucy as she boomed "What happened while I was gone?"

No one had a chance to answer as a high pitched scream pierced the air. Everyone looked towards the infirmary and Silver blanched as the scream was suddenly cut short.

"What the hell was that?" Erza asked, her anger giving way to worry as she recognized Mira's voice.

Silver ignored her and shot out of his seat and ran upstairs. When he entered the room he saw something he hoped to never see again. His son was standing with most of the right side of his body covered in a black inky substance. It reached all the way to the arm that had grabbed Mira by her neck and was holding her up in midair.

"Filthy vermin, did I not go far enough away that I still have to be troubled by the likes of you?" Bel growled.

"You have to fight for control, Gray." Silver yelled, hoping his son could hear him. "If you don't do something, he *will* kill Mira. He thinks she's a demon. Devils kill demons, it's in their nature."

"Leave the questions for later, we have to get up there!" Laxus yelled at Erza urgently as he ran up the stairs after Silver.

Erza followed after yelling at everyone else to stay where they were. When she and Laxus reached the infirmary they she saw Gray attacking Mira.

"Stop this at once, Gray." Erza scolded as Laxus looked on disbelief. "Put Mira down."

Bel turned towards the voice that seemed to be yelling at him and bared his teeth at her.

"What the -" Erza stopped, shocked by the feral response. "That is NOT Gray."

As Erza went to requip into one of her armors Silver stopped her.

"Everybody out." Silver growled his body beginning to cover itself in markings similar to those covering Gray's body. "I'll handle this."

A/N This was stupidly fun to write. I was stuck for the last few days but today everything clicked. I hope you like it.


	14. The Eyes Have It

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

Chapter 14: The Eyes Have It

Mira was on the verge of panic as the devilishly strong hand around her throat choked her and her lungs began to burn for air. She squirmed and futilely tried to pull the fingers away, but could not budge them in the slightest.

Gray's face turned back toward her, and as its menacing scowl focused on her again, Bel's evil arrogance could be seen in the depths of those dark eyes. Mira felt true fear as the grip tightened further, moving beyond an air-depriving choke into a full strangulation, and she knew she had mere seconds before she fell unconscious from the lack of blood circulation.

Mira focused, quickly performing a full body take-over with her Satan Soul. She struck the arm and hand holding her with her considerably enhanced strength, but it had no effect, and as her vision faded, and she lost her grip on consciousness, her last thought was puzzlement because the emotion flooding her was not fear or even sadness, but an unsettling blind fury.

Silver saw Mira's form slump and her eyes roll back into her head, and he knew he had to step in quickly, despite the risk that he might be severely underpowered depending on how much Meritos decided to assist. Silver had only taken one step forward however before things went from bad, to much much worse.

Mira's Satan Soul form suddenly began to change, becoming much more massive in moments. Her feet now reached the floor, and they burst into flames as well. Her luscious skin that had been briefly bared in the revealing red bodysuit favored by her normal Satan Soul form was now completely clothed in an outfit of white with dark blue highlights, a dark cloak billowed behind her on some intangible breeze.

Most important however, was the plate armor that materialized about her throat, coming up around her chin and ending in a pair of huge horns at her temples. With the combination of significantly increased girth and armor, Bel's grip was broken. His eyes widened and he suddenly realized he had gotten a much larger fight than he had bargained for as he felt a tremendous surge of magic power ripple from her new form as Satan Soul: Sitri glared at him in full fury.

Sitri's mouth opened and inhaled for several seconds, refilling the air-starved lungs and then an absolutely inhuman and deafening scream erupted from her like a banshee's wail. The sound struck Bel with the force of a cannon. Gray's clothing shredded, and the body that Bel had taken over was hurled straight through the wall behind him. He flew like a comet in a smoking arc, almost parallel to the shoreline behind the guildhouse, and he hit the water with tremendous force, causing him to be briefly obscured in a cloud of steam, water, and sand.

Sitri wasted no time in following him. She leapt out of the hole in the wall, and the flames wreathing her feet propelled her towards her foe in the distance. Both of her clawed hands were engulfed in brilliant balls of purple light.

"Well, that had to hurt." Silver muttered as he shook his head, jumped out of the hole and began to follow.

Bel shook his head and gathered his thoughts. He had rarely fought such a powerful demon, and never alone, but he recognized the typical chaotic lack of thought inherent in their kind, and he knew he just had to keep his wits about him and come up with a suitable strategy. His ears were still ringing from the demonic shout that had hurtled him there, but he also heard a roaring of fire ahead and above him, and he quickly moved several feet to the side, getting better footing on the beach while still using the slowly dissipating cloud as cover.

Sitri descended, launching bolt after bolt of violet energy from her claws, peppering the cloud to keep the devil off balance as she approached. Bel was quickly forced out of the cloud as he dodged repeatedly, watching the energy bolts turn chunks of the beach sand into molten glass at his feet. As he broke cover and was finally able to see the demon hurtling out of the air toward him, he threw up a large thick shield of ice in a half dome. He made the ice as smooth and reflective as possible, and watched in satisfaction as the next volly of bolts careened harmlessly off of it.

Bel's satisfaction was short-lived however as he realized that the demon was not slowing down in the slightest, and was, in fact, increasing the amount of flames roaring behind her. He took one glance at the insane feral look in her eyes as she plummeted toward him, and turned to run.

Sitri hit the ice dome with unbelievable force. The thick wall collapsed on Bel's back, pinning him in the sand as she stood atop the ice, glaring down at him. She raised both hands above her head, a ball of flame growing between them as she prepared to smite her foe with crazed glee.

Silver's sprinting had finally brought him near enough to see Bel/Gray's predicament, and he had just enough time to think that it was very likely he would be paying double for his drinks for the next year as he quickly fashioned a chain whip out of ice links and struck with it, snaring Mira/Sitri's feet and yanking hard, causing her to fall on the collapsed wall and roll off of it.

Mira returned to consciousness with the utmost confusion. She was lying on the beach instead of standing in the infirmary, her legs were bound in some sort of ice chain which was slowly melting in the demonic fire that surrounded her feet, and most disconcerting, she was facing a mirror-like mound of ice where she could clearly see Sitri's face contorted in mindless rage reflected back at her instead of the Satan Soul Mira had transformed into. Mira realized with chagrin that she was not currently in control of her body, but fortunately, she had a lifetime of training as a take-over mage, and she quickly set about wresting control back from the enraged demon that had taken the opportunity that Mira's unconsciousness had presented, even if it had likely saved her life.

Gray returned to consciousness with the utmost confusion. He was lying on the beach instead of standing inside the summoning circle, he was pinned under the crushing weight of a mound of ice which felt very different from his normal creations, and most disconcerting, he was facing a mirror-like surface where he could clearly see his own face reflected back, contorted in pain and anger, half of it obscured with an inky blackness, with his worst nightmare glaring back at him from the depths of his eyes. Gray realized with chagrin that about the only normal thing he could determine about his situation was that he had somehow managed to lose his clothes again. This thought was quickly replaced by terror as he realized that he was not in control of his body, and he felt the presence of another mind within him. He mentally flailed against it trying to get his body to respond to him in any way.

Mira finished regaining control of her body just as she felt the chain about her ankles sufficiently weaken from the demonic flames melting it. She flexed her legs and felt the bonds give way, then quickly rolled over and stood up. This move was extremely well timed as the mound she had been leaning against suddenly shot up off of the ground, launched by a pair of ice pillars, and flew across the beach, almost taking Silver's head off as he narrowly managed to duck and tumble under it with a curse.

Bel stood and thrust his hands into the twin pillars of ice. Both shattered, revealing a pair of saw-toothed swords clenched in his fists. He crouched into a fighting stance, one held low in front of him, and the other above his head, parallel to the ground. The cruel points were pointing unwaveringly at the demon in front of him.

Mira held her armored and claw-tipped hands up in guard, and faced her opponent. Her voice was calm and firm as she began speaking, not to the monster in front of her, but to her friend who she was sure was struggling for control within.

"Gray, you've got to work your way through this. Right now, you are probably just flailing about wildly, and it won't do anything more than just annoy this thing. You need to find your center and…", she was interrupted as a flurry of sword blows flashed in toward her. She blocked each strike, slowly giving ground and staying on the defensive as she tried to give Gray a crash course in take-over magic in a literal trial by fire and ice.

Bel realized immediately that the threat from the woman in front of him might be even greater than the beast he had been confronting moments earlier. He charged in, launching blows high and low in an effort to disrupt her, but the cursed woman continued her coaching in a calm friendly tone as she deftly deflected every swing of his swords.

"Find your center and feel your entire body. It is *your* body. You've lived in it your entire life. Unfortunately that can make it easy for you to not take the time to really think about what that means. You know every small ache and pain you wake up with, the exhilarating burn in your lungs after a long run. You know exactly how hard you can push yourself and you can even tell when you are starting to catch a cold, long before you get a runny nose." Mira stopped talking again as she focused on dodging and blocking the devil's frantic assault.

Gray latched on to Mira's words like a life-line. He stopped his useless mental flailing, and instead began to listen to his body and remember everything he could about it. He felt the slightest hitch in his shoulder whenever Bel drew the sword back for a high swing. That was courtesy of Natsu, who launched him off of a small cliff during one of their fights, chipping the ball of the joint. He felt the pace of the battle, his pulse and breathing, and knew they were the result of *his* training, not anything this imposter in his body was responsible for. Gray chuckled as he heard Mira mention catching a cold, something he had not had to suffer since becoming an ice mage as a small child. Then, Gray felt a surge of elation as he realized that he actually *heard* that chuckle. He made that happen! It was a small step, but it was certainly progress.

How in the hell could he turn that small victory into wresting control of his body back from the devil that had entered him though? Gray could feel its immense power thrumming through his body and he had to acknowledge that it was much stronger than his own. This was not going to be easy but failure was not an option he could accept. The stakes were too high, not only could he lose Natsu and Kai, if he wasn't careful he might very well lose himself too.

"There they are!" Evergreen could be heard yelling as Elfman careened towards the fighting Mira and Gray, casting his Beast Soul takeover seemingly in mid air as he roared and threw himself in a flying tackle at the Ice Devil Slayer attacking his sister. He made sure to lead with his horns to inflict the most damage to Gray's flesh. For once he was too concerned to even comment about the manliness of the situation.

"Elfman, be careful. Gray's still in there." Erza chastised the take over mage even as she was trying to decide whether to requip and go help protect Gray or just watch from the sidelines. Something which was decidedly difficult for her.

The others arrived in quick order. Laxus, Freed and Bickslow and the rest of the dragon slayers soon joined Evergreen, who was trying to downplay her concern for Elfman. They all stood watching the event unfold not sure how to best help in this increasingly bizarre situation.

"Bickslow can you do it?" Laxus asked urgently as he noticed Mira beginning to tire.

Bickslow shrugged. "I can try, I mean what's the worst that can happen?" Bickslow's babies remained eerily quiet after this statement, which made everyone even more on edge than they already were.

"Damnit, if only we could buy some time." Laxus cursed, frustrated with the lack of a clear plan of action.

"If time is all you need, I can buy you at least that much." Evergreen said absently, her attention still on Elfman as her hands unconsciously fidgeted with her glasses.

"Ever, what are you planning?" Bickslow asked, his tone indicated more curiosity than concern, but there was a little bit of that in there as well.

"Don't worry about it, I've got this." Evergreen replied, trying to sound more confident than she felt. She still had a nagging doubt about her plan. She knew that this magic only worked on humans and she wasn't entirely sure whether Gray still qualified as such. It didn't matter, she had to try. If if didn't work, they'd just have to come up with something else. She could do this, she just had to get closer. She took a deep breath and moved towards the combatants.

Mira and Elfman had noticed her by this point and spared a quick look at each other as they continued to fight, trying to figure out what the Fairy Mage could possibly be up to. A pair of pink fairy wings appeared on Evergreen's back and she took to the air.

"Fairy Bomb Attack: Gremlin"

Dust particles appeared all around Bel and before he could attempt to freeze them they exploded. Although he was not hurt it was enough to anger him further and he turned his attention to the pesky flying creature that had attacked him. Evergreen having sprung her trap quickly moved her hands up to her face and removed her glasses waiting for the Ice Devil to look at her. The moment he did she used her Stone Eyes and watched with satisfaction as Gray's body turned to stone.

She landed back on the ground and looked at Laxus with a pleased expression. "There you go, I bought you some time."

"What did you do? Is he going to be alright?" Silver asked with a tight voice as he gazed at the stone statue that was his son. This day was not at all turning out the way it was supposed to.

"Gray's fine, or at least he will be for the next three hours. If left under this spell he would eventually turn to dust but I won't let that happen." Evergreen smiled at him reassuringly. "Now we have more time to come up with a plan to help him."

"Alright, let's get back to the guild." Laxus said. "Elfman, can you carry Gray back to the guild?"

Elfman grunted his assent and while still in his Beast form picked up the statue and carried it away.

Everyone surrounded Mira wanting to assure themselves that she was ok. She dispelled her Satan Soul and stood before them in her maroon dress once again.

"I'm fine, everyone. Please don't worry." Mira said in her sweet voice. "Let's just focus on finding a way to help Gray."

As they walked in a big group back towards the guild Mira made a point of walking next to Silver. "I know you're worried but I think if the two of us work together we can get him back."

Silver looked at her with surprise. "You're willing to help him after what he did?"

"Of course, he is my nakama." Mira said simply. "Besides he didn't do anything, the devil did. Gray is trapped in his own body and we have to get him strong enough to fight back. That devil is strong, the longer Gray waits the harder it will be to get his body back."

They reached the guild building and went inside. Elfman had placed Gray's statue by the table they had been sitting at before they had heard Mira scream.

"Can he hear us?" Freed asked.

"I don't really know, I've never been petrified." Evergreen replied looking to Erza for an answer.

"I was able to hear but I was only hit by half the strength of the spell. Lucy?" Erza looked to her teammate for an answer.

"We couldn't hear or remember anything." Lucy replied, her gaze fixed on Gray's statue. Evergreen's spell had caught his expression in a angry scowl that looked very unnatural on the kind ice mage, about the only thing that seemed familiar was his clothing or rather lack thereof. He looked nothing like the friend she had come to admire. She started to sniffle as she remembered with fondness that the first time she had met Gray Fullbuster he had asked to borrow her underwear. What would they do if they couldn't get him back to normal?

"Can someone please explain to me what happened while I was gone?" Erza asked with as much patience as she could considering what Jellal had told her on her way back to the guild. "I got a very frantic call from Jellal asking me about Gray and then when I get here this happens."

"Short version, we were helping Lyon become an Ice Devil Slayer. Something went wrong during the ritual and the Ice Devil ended up possessing Gray instead. He passed out and you were here for the rest." Laxus tried to get through it quickly so they could focus on the problem at hand.

"Are you out of your minds? Why would you do that?" Erza asked in outraged disbelief, "Why would you mess with forces you know nothing about?"

"Erza, no offense but we don't have time for this. You can yell at me all you want later, right now we have less than three hours to come up with something to help Gray." Silver spoke up.

Erza looked ready to yell at him but seemed to acknowledge the wisdom in his words. "Fine, but we're not done discussing this." She took a seat across from Laxus. "What are we going to do?"

She became agitated when no one came forward with any ideas. "Come now, surely with all the different types of magic in this room we should be able to do something!"

For another ten minutes the guild was enveloped in silence until finally a voice was heard.

"I know of something that might help but it is dangerous and the cost is high." Freed said causing Laxus to narrow his eyes and emit a small growl. Freed raised an eyebrow at the Lightning Dragon Slayer, not sure how to interpret the reaction. He turned his attention back to Erza and held her gaze. "It is very complicated and if I fail we could lose both Natsu and Gray."

"What is it?" Erza asked warily.

"It's a forbidden spell called Soul Cage. Essentially I could use my Darkness magic to seal the Ice Devil away for a time in Gray's mind. Gray would be able to regain control of his body and learn to use his new magic without intervention. Hopefully he would be able to get strong enough that even when the seal breaks he could maintain control of his body."

"Even when the seal breaks?" Lucy asked, "It won't hold him forever?"

"No, Bel is too strong and he will be working against it from the moment he is sealed. Like most spells if the will fighting against it is strong enough it will eventually break through." Freed answered nonplussed.

"Nevermind that, you mentioned a high cost. What kind of cost?" Laxus demanded, his eyes never leaving the rune mage's face.

"Dark magic always demands a price of its caster, Laxus." Freed spoke calmly distancing himself from the information. "In this case for trapping someone's soul it would darken my own. I'm not entirely sure how that would be reflected." He shrugged.

"No, as Guild Master, I forbid it." Laxus cried. "I want to help Fullbuster as much as anyone but not at the cost of your soul. That's too much to ask."

"With all due respect, Guild Master, that is not your decision to make." Silver growled. "It might be the only way to save Gray."

"That's enough!" Erza interrupted before the argument got out of hand, "We don't have time for petty squabbles! I think you are both too close to this. Silver is correct, the final decision rests with Freed."

"Freed, you mentioned that if you failed we could lose both Natsu and Gray. What did you mean by that?" Lucy asked.

"There are two souls in there. If I caged the wrong one, Bel might be able to use his considerable power to keep Gray locked away indefinitely and since their souls are fused that could mean that Natsu's soul might end up locked inside his own mind. I don't know that for a fact but there's just too much we don't understand about their bond and that is one of the books that we have not been able to recover. I have only heard of this spell being used a few times. As I said, it is considered forbidden magic. The only reason I know of it is because I tend to be a bit overzealous in my studies."

"Alright, if you were to do this, what would you need?" Erza asked, pointedly ignoring the glare that Laxus was sending her way.

Freed sat quietly, giving thought to what he would need. After a few minutes he nodded to himself. "Evergreen would have to dispel her spell while Bickslow used his Figure Eyes to paralyze Bel's soul for as long as he is able so that I can draw the rune I need on Gray's body. Once the rune is completed the spell should be cast and Bel should be restrained for as long as the cage can hold him back. I'm not sure how long that would be. It could be months, or it could be weeks. "

"You don't have to do this, Freed." Erza told him, "We can still try to find another way."

"Yes, I do." Freed said simply, "I can help Gray and the fact is, he would do it for me."

Everyone remained quiet at that, if there was one thing you could count on from Gray it was that he would sacrifice himself for any of them, no questions asked.

"Bicks and Ever, are you with me?" Freed asked the other members of the Thunder Legion.

"Of course, you idiot." Ever smiled at him.

"Like we would let you have all the fun." Bickslow smirked as his babies cried "Fun ,Fun" all around him.

"Alright Thunder Legion, you know what to do." Freed said as he took his sword out of his scabbard preparing to draw the complicated rune. He gave one last nervous look to his two friends and commanded "Let's begin."

A/N I know, I suck, but if I continued it would be another chapter's worth of stuff so this felt like a good stopping point and yes the title is corny but it amuses me so I won't apologize for it. Cringe away.

Thank you to deinspanjer for writing the initial battle scene, I really appreciate that you enjoy writing those, my love. 3

Also thank you to JoachJon on AO3 for your enthusiasm and to Zane_Takeshi for being an all around great friend. My inbox has been a nicer place as of late. To my wattpad "evangelist" YamiTAO ;) thank you as well. It really helps to get me excited about writing when I have people actively telling me they enjoy reading what I write. Until next chapter! :)


	15. Skin Deep

Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

Chapter 15: Skin Deep

At Freed's request the guild members moved away from the table and onto the second floor. Silver, Laxus, Gajeel, Lyon and Erza remained downstairs in case things did not go as planned. Lyon's expression was laced with guilt as he looked over at Silver. He really hoped this worked, he wanted more than anything for things to go back to normal. Silver, feeling the weight of the gaze turned towards Lyon and gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile. They would have to have a long talk soon. He hoped Lyon could hold on until then.

The Thunder Legion moved the table out of the way and got into position in front of the stone statue. They all appeared to be nervous but their determination was clear in their stances.

"Alright Bickslow, we'll have a very short window to do this. You'll need to grab on to Bel's soul the second you can feel it. He will try to fight you, make sure you don't grab Gray's soul by mistake or we'll all be in trouble." Freed said. "Ever, wait for my signal."

Evergreen nodded. Out of the three she was the least nervous. Her job was easy, all she had to do was break her own spell. Still, she was nervous for her teammates. Although she was sure they could pull it off, like Laxus she couldn't help but worry about how casting this spell would affect the mild mannered rune mage. Freed began to draw runes on himself as he cast Dark Écriture: Darkness. Evergreen watched his body transform within the dark aura that surrounded him with fascination. Saw how his muscles expanded and his body grew as it turned a dark gray color. His face became that of a demonic creature and horns grew out of his head making him look almost beast like in appearance. Even though Evergreen had known Freed for years and had fought at his side more times than she could count she had rarely seen him use this magic. She knew that even though it was very powerful Freed disliked it. Disliked the way it made him look and act and feel. It was also a bit of a risk since darkness magic gave Freed demonic powers and abilities, possibly enough to incite an attack from the Ice Devil if Bickslow was not able to paralyze him. If that were to happen there was a good chance that the devil would come after Freed. Evergreen could only hope that Freed was ready for that possibility.

Once he was done transforming Freed focused on collecting his scattered thoughts. One of the things that he did not like about Darkness magic was the way his thinking became chaotic and unfocused. It made him feel aggressive and violent and it took a great deal of discipline to keep himself under control. It was one of the reasons he had learned to keep to his rules, it helped instill the discipline he needed to remain in control while in that state. The first time he had used it he had hurt someone by accident and he had been determined to never do that again.

He envisioned the rune in his mind and held on to it. It was a more complicated rune than any of the other spells he used and any mistakes would make it ineffective. He had purposefully failed to mention a key factor of the spell to the others aware that they would have spent precious time they did not have bickering over it. He would have to carve the Soul Cage onto Gray's skin with his sword, this was why it was so important that Bickslow held him in place for as long as possible. The rune, coated in Gray's blood would work itself inside the body and attach itself to Bel's soul and cage it. Soul Cage, like most dark magic, required blood both from the caster and the intended subject to function properly. In his case, rather than literal blood, a piece of his soul would become darkened. Even with all the time he had spent with Bickslow over the years he only had a hazy idea as to how souls worked but he knew that Bickslow could seen them and would be able to notice the change. Whatever the consequences he could not regret helping a guild mate out of a situation, especially when it was not of his own making. All of them had come a long way from The Battle of Fairy Tail.

Freed nodded at Evergreen and Bickslow who were waiting for his signal. Bickslow removed his visor and focused his eyes on the statue, ready to cast his Figure Eyes the second Ever dispelled Stone Eyes. For now he would feel for the strong soul signature that belonged to the Ice Devil. Freed continued keeping the rune in his thoughts as he waited silently for the telltale darkening of Gray's body that would show Bickslow was in control.

Ever took off her glasses and as her eyes began to glow with greenish lights cracks began to appear on the statue. Bickslow waited patiently, his face absent of its usual cocky expression. He watched the cracks spread at first in hairlines but then all at once the statue disappeared to be replaced with a rather confused looking but still snarling human figure, flesh covered in the telltale inky black of the Ice Devil's magic.

Bickslow's eyes began to glow and soon his body followed suit as it became surrounded in an eerie green aura. His babies began to giggle creepily as they surrounded him protectively but Bickslow ignored them. He watched the Ice Devil and as soon as their eyes met he smirked cockily and cast "Figure Eyes."

His smirk wavered as he began to feel the push of the Ice Devil's will as it fought hard against him. Bickslow pushed back with as much power as he could muster but it was harder than he had anticipated. For how ever much progress he made he lost some ground as Bel fought back against his control. This was by far the strongest soul he had ever encountered and as he gritted his teeth he realized with amusement that he was enjoying the challenge. It had been quite a while since he'd had to work this hard to control another living being. He felt a small breach in Bel's defenses and quickly took advantage of it. Gray's body began to darken and Bickslow held on for all he was worth.

"Now, Freed" he grunted as drops of sweat dripped from his forehead. "Hurry, I don't know how long I can hold him."

Freed held his sword out and got closer to Gray's body. As soon as he began to carve the rune into Gray's chest a scream of pain could be heard and it took all of Bickslows concentration to overpower the writhing soul and keep the body still as Freed continued to deftly carve the intricate lines into Gray's flesh.

Freed could hear the noises of people arguing behind him but he ignored them, he didn't have time for distractions. He could see he did not have long as he could hear the strain in Bickslow's breathing as he fought to keep Gray's body paralyzed.

"Sonofabitch, that hurts!" Gray yelled out. "What the fuck are you doing, Freed?"

"Gray?" Freed asked carefully, "Is that really you?"

"Yeah, it's me." Gray panted out. "I managed to get control while he was fighting with Bickslow. Are you going to get him out of me?"

"I'm afraid we can't do that." Freed said. "The best I can do is trap him for a while and try to give you time to learn how to get control back."

"Guys?" Bickslow grunted. "Can you get on with this? I'm starting to run low and he's still fighting me."

"I'm sorry, Gray." Freed said evenly. "This is going to hurt like hell."

"Just hurry the hell up." Gray grimaced but remained determined as always. "I'll stay in control as long as I can."

Freed nodded and continued to carve away, trying to remain impassive as Gray's initial sangfroid gave way to screams. He worked as fast as he could making sure to be concise. Once he finished and was sure that the rune was as accurate as he could make it he cast Soul Cage and placed his hand on the bloody mess that was Gray's chest as he imbued the rune with some of his power. The rune began to glow purple and as it did it seemingly disappeared into Gray's body.

At the same time Freed felt a sharp pain inside of him. He put his arm to his chest and he staggered as he began to feel woozy. The last thing he heard was a whispered "Thank You" from Gray right before a wild howl was heard. Then, at least for Freed, there was nothing more.

o-o

Gray opened his eyes and looked around, his eyes getting used to the bright light in the infirmary his vision adjusting. He looked to his right and noticed with concern that Bickslow and Freed were on the beds next to him. He focused on his chest expecting to feel pain considering something had been carved into it but to his surprise there was nothing there. He moved his arms and was happy to feel them respond to his command. It had been a harrowing experience to be a prisoner in his own body. One he did not care to repeat. He could feel a presence almost in the back of his mind and he felt a twinge of fear. He somehow had to learn how to keep that powerful devil contained but he still didn't understand how or even what his exact situation was and it scared him. All he knew for sure was that the devil was more powerful than him by an order of magnitude.

He thought about Natsu and fretted. Did Natsu know something was wrong? Had he felt anything through the bond? That thought terrified him. He closed his eyes and focused on their bond but felt nothing out of place, just the steady hum that was Natsu. Everything was fine for now.

He didn't want Natsu to break up with him, didn't want him to think that he had chosen magic over their relationship. He felt a lump in his throat as he thought of what would happen when Natsu found out about the Ice Devil. Could he really end things just like that? He couldn't bear to think about that. He had to get this devil out of him, he just had to.

He heard a nervous cough and looked to the left to see Lyon sitting in the chair next to his bed. Gray saw how wretched his brother looked and it didn't take much to realize that Lyon blamed himself for what had happened.

"What do you look so glum about?" Gray asked. "Everything's fine now."

Lyon looked at him sadly. "No, Gray. Everything's not fine. What they did to you, it's only temporary. They don't know how long it's going to keep him contained."

"So what? It's a chance, I just have to work hard to keep in control. What did they do anyway?"

"Freed cast a forbidden spell on Bel. He managed to seal his soul inside of you. It will take him a while to break through the seal but it's only a matter of time before he gets out and fights you for control.

"Bel? Is that the name of the Ice Devil? Have you been able to communicate with it?" Gray asked excitedly. If he could talk to it, figure out what it wanted maybe they could come to some sort of agreement.

"You can ask Silver, but from what I heard that's all Silver's devil would tell him." Lyon informed him. "He hasn't talked, only attacked Mira but she was able to hold her own."

"Is Freed going to be ok?" Gray asked with concern as he looked at the still unconscious figures of the two members of the Thunder Legion.

Lyon scratched the back of his head. "I honestly don't know. There was supposed to be some sort of consequence for using the spell but I didn't really understand what it was."

Gray absorbed that information and sighed. He didn't want Freed to have to suffer for what had happened to him.

"I'm so sorry for all of this." Lyon said softly as he looked at Gray with shame in his eyes.

"Lyon, don't be stupid. It was an accident. You never meant for this to happen and it's not over. I intend to fight this with everything I've got. We will find a way out, we always do." Gray said and he meant it. He might lose in the end but he planned to give this bastard the fight of his life.

"I've kept you from everything you've been working towards, Gray. If I hadn't been such a coward none of this would have happened. How can you be so calm about this? "

"You seem disappointed. Do you want me to be upset with you?" Gray looked into Lyon's eyes and saw that this was indeed the case. He sighed. "I don't know how I feel at the moment. I'm just happy to be back in control, you have no idea how that felt."

"There's no just no sense in wasting time being upset about something that can't be changed, besides I hold some of the responsibility as well. I chose to be there with you, I knew something could go wrong. We were messing with stuff we didn't understand, it was just bad luck, man." Gray shrugged.

Lyon still did not look convinced but he relaxed somewhat.

"Where is everyone?" Gray asked, surprised that his father was not there to check on him.

"They're downstairs discussing some help request from Crime Sorciere." Lyon replied. "I wasn't deemed useful so I was sent up here to keep an eye on all of you."

"Oh. Well, why don't you catch me up on what's happened since the ritual then." Gray said deciding to not get himself involved in the conversation downstairs for the moment. He listened to his brother's explanations while he waited for the Thunder Legion mages to wake up. Gray wanted to make sure Freed was ok, he had sacrificed himself for him after all.

o-o

Natsu awoke with surprise. What the hell? He wasn't dead? He quickly checked their bond and to his great relief felt Gray's quiet presence humming within. He was in his tent and for a moment he allowed himself to wonder whether he'd just had a very realistic nightmare, but when he felt the pain from where he had hurt his face when he fell he knew that wasn't the case. Happy was asleep cuddled up by his side, his little blue paw stretched out towards him. Natsu smiled at the sight.

He stiffened when he smelled the other presence in his tent. Why was Cobra in here with him?

"Just making sure you're ok." Cobra responded to the question that Natsu had only thought. "You gave us quite a scare."

Natsu immediately started making his thoughts as loud as he could and added as many uncomfortable thoughts about Gray as he could. Gray stripping down to his underwear.

Gray kissing him and….

"You can stop that, Natsu. We already know about Kai." Cobra interjected. "I really don't need to hear any more of your thoughts about Gray. That was smart by the way. I kind of didn't expect that from you."

Natsu sat up looking both confused and insulted at the same time.

"Why didn't you tell us you were pregnant?" Cobra asked curiously.

"Because you're too damn nosy and it's none of your damn business." Natsu snapped with the usual charm he expended to any conversation with Cobra.

"I heard some things the first day you got here." Cobra admitted, "I had been wanting to talk to you about them but I was ashamed."

"What things did you hear?" Natsu asked feeling defensive.

"I…..I heard what she did to you." Cobra said with discomfort. He fixed his gaze on Happy's sleeping body to avoid looking at Natsu's face. "You had a nightmare and the memories flooded your thoughts."

"Oh."

"Is that how you're pregnant?" Cobra asked. Jellal had sent him to get as many answers as he could from the Fire Dragon Slayer - but he found himself needing to hear all of it. Everything he had been complicit to. Ignorance was no excuse, he had heard her thinking about Natsu. He had known that there was more to what she had told him, the fact that she removed Natsu from her thoughts should have given him pause but he had been too busy thinking about how useless he had been against the dragons to really listen to the warning bells.

"Yeah." Natsu answered. He had not expected this conversation. "How did you learn about Kai?"

"When you were about to pass out you mentioned his name." Cobra said gently. He knew better than to sound threatening when it came to a dragon's hatchling. "Once you passed out and your overly loud thoughts were not covering it up, I heard him. He was scared for you."

"He was?" Natsu asked with a pang of sadness in his voice as he thought about how confused Kai must have been.

"You can hear him? Wait a minute, what the hell happened to me?" Natsu startled as he remembered the pain he had been in and realized that something must have happened to Gray for all of that to have happened.

Cobra shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Jellal called Erza but she was with Lucy. They hurried back to Fairy Tail. We're waiting to hear back any minute."

"How did you get in touch with her in the first place? Jellal's telepathy does not extend that far." Natsu peered at the Poison Dragon Slayer suspiciously.

"They have some sort of portable lacrima they use with each other." Cobra shrugged, "It was invented by some guy in your guild."

Natsu started to get up and get all his belongings together. "I have to go."

"Natsu, even with Happy flying you it'll take you days to get back to your guild from here. You're honestly better off just waiting for Erza to get back to us. At least then you'll know what's going on." Cobra pointed out.

Natsu knew that what Cobra was saying made sense but he couldn't quiet the sense of apprehension at something being wrong with Gray. "He's my mate, Cobra. I can't just sit here and do nothing while he's hurt."

"You don't even know that he *is* hurt."

"You think I would have felt all that if he was fine?" Natsu snapped at Cobra as he stared back at him stupidly.

"How the hell would I know anything? There seem to be a lot of things you chose to hide from us, including your connection to Zeref. Why don't we at least finish our conversation and then if she hasn't called by the time we're done you can go off to find him."

Natsu still wanted to leave immediately but even he couldn't fail to see the wisdom in Cobra's words.

"Fine, say what you gotta say." he grumbled.

"Ok." Cobra took a deep breath. "Tiamat came to see me when I was in prison." He noticed Natsu tense up at his words and knew instinctively that this was not going to go well. "She had shifted into Lahar but I could tell right away it wasn't him. I imagine she didn't have a long time to observe him."

Cobra stopped for a moment and tried to think how to best explain his actions. There really was no good way.

"When she told me who she was I was interested enough that I let her take me out for awhile. Once she took the cuffs off I was able to see her thoughts. She was thinking about her fight with Acnologia and how she needed more power to defeat him. She had actually fought with Acnologia and managed to survive."

He paused to look at Natsu's face but he remained impassive, staring at him but giving nothing away. Cobra sighed and continued.

"I also heard what she was planning to do to me and I had no intention of bedding her. I came up with the idea of having her absorb my roar instead. It worked and she was able to get her Poison magic."

"I didn't know what she had done to you. All I caught was that she had some sort of design on you but the moment I questioned her she completely removed you from her mind. I should have realized…. I'm so sorry, Natsu. I shouldn't have helped her."

"You idiot!" Natsu screeched. "When she told everyone that you had given her your magic voluntarily we never believed her. Thanks to you she came after us and she killed a man we were protecting and stole Laxus' lightning. She never had any intention of fighting Acnologia!"

"We weren't able to even put a dent in those dragons after the Games, Natsu! I thought maybe she was the one we needed to get rid of that fucking plague. And I was right, she did." Cobra said defensively.

"Only because he almost killed our son." Natsu said furiously. "Otherwise she would have left use there to die."

"Natsu, why are you yelling?" a sleepy voice asked.

"I'm sorry, Happy. We didn't mean to wake you up."

"That's ok. Are you ok now?" Happy asked the Fire Dragon Slayer with concern. "You had us really worried."

"It looks like it." Natsu answered trying not to snap at poor Happy who had nothing to do with why he was angry.

"What happened?" Happy asked.

"I don't know yet. We're waiting to hear back from Erza. Do you think you can find Jellal and ask him if there's any news?"

"Aye, sir!" Happy brightened at the thought of being useful and quickly flew away.

"Natsu…."

"You know what?" Natsu waved him away angrily. "I'm beyond tired of dealing with this shit. It happened, it's over. Whatever you did you had no way of knowing what had happened unless she was thinking of it at the time. Everything worked out in the end. It's fine."

"Natsu, I really am sorry." Cobra tried once more to apologize.

"I know you are." Natsu stood up. He felt antsy and wired so he started walking towards the forest. "I need some air, I'm going to go for a walk. Please don't come get me unless there's news."

Cobra stared after him but let him go. Jellal was going to be pissed that he didn't get around to asking him any questions but he knew better than to push Natsu, he could hear his thoughts and they were screaming Stay away!

o-o

"You know damn well that the only reason you did this today is because you knew I wouldn't be here." Erza glared at Silver accusingly as they sat in the privacy of the Guild Master's Office.

"That's not true, Erza. Besides, Lyon is an adult, he is perfectly capable of making his own decisions."

"Yeah and look at where Gray is now because of it." Erza snapped at Silver. "Where were you when all this happened?"

"I was right there Erza, you think I wouldn't have stopped it if I could've? I tried. You would not have been able to do any better. It was an unfortunate accident."

"Erza, we were all there. There was nothing any of us could do." Laxus interrupted his co-guild master before the conversation could escalate. "You said you got a call from Jellal asking about Gray? Why was that?"

"Natsu has been staying with Crime Sorciere. He's been helping them get rid of a cult that has its headquarters there." Erza recounted the bizarre conversation she'd had with Jellal hours earlier.

"Jellal and Natsu were sparring when Natsu began to act strangely. He seemed to be under attack even though there no one could detect any magic working against him. His symptoms became worse and then he just collapsed. Cobra said he was screaming Gray's name in his mind. Once he was unconscious Cobra became aware of Kai and they didn't know what to make of him so they called me."

"I told you that would happen." Gajeel said to Laxus. "It sounds like he felt what the Ice Freak did. That means he definitely knows something's up."

Laxus groaned. "Great. Now what? How are we going to keep this from him?"

"I still think that's a bad call." Gajeel pointed out. "He deserves to know the truth."

"If he finds out the truth, he'll leave Gray." Silver reminded Gajeel. "He flat out said so."

"Look, Salamander's a jackass but he loves the Ice Freak. They're mates, that means a hell of a lot to us. Besides the mating bond is irreversible."

"Gray said Natsu told him there was a way to undo the soul bond. If that were to happen Natsu would have to give him up in this life and all others. Are you willing to make that choice for Gray?"

Gajeel muttered, "Flame headed idiot." under his breath.

"We all know how both Natsu and Gray can be but I think I have a solution to our problem." Erza spoke up . "Jellal is asking us for help in investigating this cult. He said they have some sort of connection to Zeref. Natsu is already there with them. We'll just tell him that he is responsible for being our liaison with Crime Sorciere."

Gajeel snickered. "I bet you Salamander doesn't even know what that means."

"Do you?" Laxus smirked at his fellow dragon slayer.

Gajeel glared at him much to the Lightning Dragon Slayer's amusement.

"Jellal said that they have not been able to find out very much about this cult. They've been spending most of their time obstructing the cult's attempts at destroying neighboring towns. If it really is connected to Zeref I think we're in a very good position to infiltrate and find out more about it's inner workings before we take it out." Erza's expression turned calculating and she grinned gleefully as she shifted her gaze to their newest member.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Silver shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Isn't it obvious?" Erza replied, the grin still present on her face. "You are the last remaining Demon Gate of Tartaros. They'd be idiots not to want you in their cult."

"We've been over this before. Zeref had nothing to do with Tartaros." Silver pointed out, not really liking where the conversation was going. "I'm also not a Demon of Zeref, I'm the exact opposite actually."

"How many people are aware of that?" Erza countered. "Besides if Zeref is involved it might get you closer to finding E.N.D. Isn't that your goal, to kill the last demon Zeref has at his disposal?"

Erza smirked, satisfied that she had gotten through to the Ice Devil Slayer as she saw Silver's eyes harden as he thought over what she was proposing. They sat in silence for a while waiting for Silver's response.

"Alright, I'll infiltrate this little cult of yours but Gray is coming with me." Silver finally answered.

"You can't take him with you." Laxus protested. "We have no idea how long Freed's Soul Cage is going to last. What if he loses it?"

"That's exactly why he has to come with me. No one here is equipped to teach Gray Ice Devil Slayer Magic and he's going to need that to fight Bel off. Mira will just have to give him a crash course in how to fight off a takeover before we go."

"I don't like it either Laxus, but Silver is right." Erza said discontentedly. "None of us is capable of helping Gray in this. He should go with Silver. The one thing that concerns me is that being in the cult will put you close to Jellal's camp. You must make sure to keep Natsu away from Gray for as long as you can. It's probably best if they don't know of their proximity."

Silver just grunted as he got up and made his way to the infirmary to talk to his son about their upcoming mission. He hoped that everything went as planned.

A/N I want to apologize for how long it took me to get this chapter out. The chapter itself had been giving me a hard time but it has also been a very hectic few weeks. Rest assured I was not lazing around. I, along with a few other FT LGBTQ+ writers have been working on getting a writing group up and going. We have called it Fairy Tail LGBTales and it is based off of tumblr at the moment, blogging under ftlgbtales. We also have a twitter under the same name.

Our goal is to try to make our writing space a fun one not just for us but for you as well. Together we all make up the Fairy Tail fandom! We are planning our first writing event in October to coincide with the release of the new anime which is scheduled to premiere in Japan on October 2nd. This event will be called **When We Take Different Paths** and it will consist of four different weeks. Our first week will feature wlw/femslash pairings.

We thought it would be fun if everyone was able to participate in the planning so right now we are accepting suggestions for femslash pairings. If you would like to help us out go to tumblr and send us some fanmail or reach out to us through our gmail s. We will create a poll with all the suggestions we receive. The five pairings who win the most votes will be featured in our event. A link to the poll will be up on our blog on Sunday,July 15th. Please vote!

If you are a Fairy Tail LGBT writer and would like to join our group please reach out to me through PM, tumblr or our gmail and I will be happy to extend you an invite. We also have a discord server with spaces for chatting, word-wars or sprints as well as planning. Readers are welcome to the chatting one, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out to me if you would like an invite to that as well. Let's build an FT Community we can be proud of!


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